A hopeful politician and criminal defence lawyer is under investigation after he instigated a viral social media pile-on.
Akhmed Yakoob is facing an investigation from the Solicitors Regulation Authority after he used social media to promote a false claim of racism against a young teacher.
Mr Yakoob, director of Maurice Andrews Solicitors, has been the subject of multiple complaints to the professional body that oversees solicitors.
An investigation is under way. The probe was triggered by a video promoted by Mr Yakoob to his followers on TikTok, Facebook, X, formerly Twitter, and other platforms.
The video, taken on a doorbell camera, used subtitles to suggest a 27-year-old female teacher had used a racial slur while canvassing for Labour for Dudley Council elections.
Mr Yakoob later posted the name of the teacher in the video, and the school she worked at, to his followers. A resulting backlash saw the woman and her school inundated with hundreds of messages, many of them abusive, including death threats and demands for her sacking.
Labour said it had employed an external digital forensics company, which found evidence that the video had been manipulated.
West Midlands Police later confirmed there was ‘no evidence of a racist slur or racist language’ in the content. In a statement, the Solicitors Regulation Authority said: “We are investigating before deciding on next steps.”
It is understood that Mr Yakoob has deleted the post from all his social media platforms, ‘but denies being culpable for the teacher being ‘outed’ as a racist.
