Solicitor falsely accused me of blackmail and identity fraud – what can I do?

[PoisedPearlHelper]

Hi everyone,
I’m feeling extremely distressed and could really use some advice.
A solicitor I approached just to witness a deed poll (literally a 10-minute job) has now written me a formal letter accusing me of identity fraud and blackmail, all because I left a Google review and asked for £150 compensation for the poor service I received.
To be clear:

• I turned up to the appointment on time, waited over an hour past the scheduled slot without apology, and was treated incredibly rudely throughout.
• The “identity fraud” claim appears to be based on my use of a perfectly valid house name (e.g., “The Croft”) in the deed poll, which is how my address appears on HMRC letters and utility bills.
• I corrected a typo on the deed by hand with their permission before it was witnessed.
• I later went to an independent solicitor who confirmed everything was fine and properly re-witnessed the deed poll.

Despite this, I received an aggressive letter warning me I would "hear from enforcement agencies," and treating my Google review + complaint as a criminal blackmail attempt. It’s left me shaken. I’ve now written a response asking them to:

• Retract the accusations
• Destroy my ID documents unless legally required
• Justify their data handling under UK GDPR
• Comply with the law around AML and GDPR disclosures

I’ve said if they don’t comply by 19 August, I’ll report them to the SRA, ICO and Legal Ombudsman. What else can I do to protect myself? Has anyone else experienced this kind of intimidation from a solicitor? Is it worth actually taking this to the police under harassment laws, or am I overreacting? I have a paper trail and am confident I’ve done nothing wrong, but I’m worried this could escalate or damage my name. Any legal or practical advice much appreciated – even just solidarity would help. This has genuinely shaken me. Thanks so much,

Now OP's "friend" has started a thread about this as well

Nah

I bet I’m right on this one

in fact, I’d bet a lot!

Ah - the plot thickens!

Can we get emotional damages for this thread?

I hope you can afford me! I value the time spent reading and responding at £500

Two in fact, both now deleted, and giving a slightly slightly different account of events.

Bearing in mind how incredibly easy it is to link these multiple threads to the actual person and practice, I do hope for the OP's sake that nobody connected to the solicitors peruse MN. Because they are going to have an awful lot of ammunition to use.

Both the firm of solicitors and OPs name can be easily found.

Well in that case the OP is being even more unreasonable 😅

Yes, it’s quite concerning.

I know. I found them in seconds. That is what I meant - the threads will not help her one little bit, espcially since the story seems to "migrate" at times.

1. **Their spoken English was so limited that simple points had to be repeated, destroying confidence in any advice.

and they were a solicitor operating in the UK at a UK law firm

sure OP, sure

Wow really

what was the review like?

It’s posted in full in the OP of the other thread.

Been deleted now

Oh for goodness sake, stop making a hanging offence out of this. Obviously I missed it so stop the pile-on.
Have you got nothing else to do except bully other posters?

It's in Legal Matters section.

I just found them and read their other reviews. OP isn't the only one they've accused of both blackmail and fraud!

I also liked this other reply from them: "If you think [I was] rude then have at it."

Sorry, the solicitor said that?

Like I said earlier, there is a code of professional conduct that prohibits that sort of comment. It’s part and parcel of being a solicitor, knowing how to deal with people like the OP, and threatening/goading people is absolutely not acceptable, no matter how unreasonable they are being

Can someone please PM me the solicitors firm, I’m keen to read the reviews 😁

Yep. It's pretty impressive how brazen it is: "Your review comes quite as a surprise considering you attempted to commit fraud.... You continued to blackmail us at which point for our own protection and safeguarding, we notified you that we are now recording the conversation and will be notifying the police of your attempted fraud and deception.... Thank you for posting your review, we now have the details required to take this matter further with the Police and the Courts. Your review has allowed us to write a response which we hope will prevent any further incidents of fraudulent persons entering our offices."

That's all from one review response, and not aimed at the OP

Wow.

And me, I don’t know how others were doing it but I couldn't find it using the text of the review.

And me!

If that comment by the firm is real, it shows that they are absolutely terrible lawyers. A person can't be “fraudulent”. A document can be fraudulent, a person can assume a fraudulent identity, a person can act fraudulently or be intent on committing fraud, but a “fraudulent person” is grammatical nonsense. And any lawyer worth their salt would know that it is not worth risking a libel claim by accusing a person of fraud and blackmail on the internet. There are multiple confidential ways to pursue their allegations if they genuinely believe a fraud to have been committed. I also wonder if it’s potentially tipping off should the alleged fraud relate to money laundering.

It seems that OP and these solicitors are as crazy as each other. What an unfortunate combination.