Jailed last year
A former trainee property lawyer has been barred from working in the legal profession after helping her brother escape police following a fatal drive-by shooting.
Husna Khan was training in the conveyancing remortgage department at O’Neill Patient Solicitors in Stockport when she was jailed for assisting an offender in connection with a murder case.
A noticed published this week by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) states that Khan’s brother, Khayam Khurshid, was convicted in March 2021 of murdering 18-year-old Cole Kershaw. Kershaw was shot and fatally wounded during a drive-by attack in Bury after shots were fired from a moving car. Khurshid and his accomplice fled the scene.
Following the killing, Khan and her sister hid Khurshid in a hotel and helped fund his attempted escape abroad, spending around £2,800 on travel and accommodation. Khurshid was later arrested in Amsterdam and extradited to the UK, where he was convicted of murder and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life.
Khan was arrested after returning to England and, in July 2024, was convicted at Manchester Crown Court of assisting an offender by impeding apprehension or prosecution. The following month she was sentenced to 30 months’ imprisonment, alongside a forfeiture order for her car and a £190 victim surcharge.
Her firm was unaware of the criminal proceedings until the conviction was published on a police website, according to the SRA. It reported the matter to the regulator the next day and terminated her employment two days later.
The regulator found that Khan’s actions breached its principles requiring solicitors and staff to uphold the rule of law, act with integrity, and maintain public trust in the profession.
It described her conduct as serious and “premeditated”, noting that she had “attempted to obstruct the course of justice” and that her behaviour “posed a risk to public confidence in the solicitors’ profession”.
The regulator imposed a Section 43 order, preventing Khan from working in any SRA-regulated firm without its prior approval. She was also ordered to pay £600 in costs.
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