Law student who won landmark race case jailed for theft

Ashokvardhan Purohit, 32, who recently won a landmark racial discrimination claim, was jailed for two years after a week long trial.

Purohit arrived in the UK in 2003 on a student visa and applied to commercial law firm Osborne Clarke Services for a training contract in June 2007 but was not considered because of his immigration status.  His claim for race discrimination was successful and upheld by the Employment Appeals Tribunal.  As a result of his victory, law firms are legally bound to consider candidates on their merits even where they do not hold a UK work permit.

But Purohit, who has an MA in banking and finance, was found guilty of redirecting bogus compensation payments into a personal bank account while working at a Yorkshire call centre handling Orange customer complaints.  He was convicted on two counts of theft at Sheffield Crown court after being allowed to conduct his own defence from the back of the court instead of the dock.