Bolton solicitor Asghar Ali faces renewed SRA conditions blocking firm ownership and client fund access
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has renewed a set of stringent practice conditions on Asghar Ali, a solicitor based at AA Solicitors Ltd in Bolton, for a third consecutive practising year, blocking him from managing his own firm or handling any client money.
The most recent decision, dated 19 March 2026 and published on 19 June 2026, applies to Ali’s practising certificate for 2025/2026. It mirrors substantially the same conditions previously imposed in March 2024 and July 2025, each time covering the same five restrictions.
Under the current conditions, Ali cannot act as a manager or owner of any authorised body or authorised non-SRA firm. He may practise as a solicitor only as an employee within an authorised body, and only where the SRA has first approved that specific role. He is also prohibited from serving as a Compliance Officer for Legal Practice (COLP), Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration (COFA), Head of Legal Practice (HOLP), or Head of Finance and Administration (HOFA) in any setting.
The fourth condition bars Ali from offering legal services as a freelance solicitor, whether reserved or unreserved, on his own account under regulations 10.2(a) or 10.2(b) of the SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations. The fifth condition goes further still: Ali must not hold, receive, or bear any responsibility for client money, act as a signatory on any client or office account, or authorise electronic transfers from any such account.
The SRA states the conditions are “necessary in the public interest” and are proportionate under regulation 7 of the SRA Authorisation of Individuals Regulations and section 28 of the Legal Services Act 2007.
Ali is listed as Solicitor number 225018, practising at AA Solicitors Ltd, 195 St Helens Road, Bolton, BL3 3PY (Firm ID: 573705). The SRA reached this outcome by its own internal decision-making process, no tribunal hearing is recorded in the published document.
The conditions have now been imposed for three consecutive practising years, with the SRA continuing to state that the restrictions are necessary in the public interest.