Blavo & Co, the firm which yesterday placed all of its staff into a redundancy consultation, has been reported to the police by the Legal Aid Agency.

John Blavo, the firm's founder and Senior and Managing Partner, previously told RollOnFriday that the 240 people whose jobs are at risk could blame, er, their own crap performance reviews. But also the "knock-on effects of legal aid cutbacks". He said the cutbacks "have severely impacted upon the number of cases we are allowed to be paid for in this particular area".

His comment suggested that the firm was suffering from the same legal aid cutbacks that have been affecting the wider market. But Blavo was being too coy. His firm is actually the subject of very specific legal aid cutbacks. A spokesman for the Legal Aid Agency said it had "identified significant concerns about claims from this firm", and as a consequence stopped payments and terminated all its contracts with Blavo & Co. In an indication of the seriousness of its concerns, the LAA has referred the matter to the Metropolitan Police.

Blavo, Sir

RollOnFriday asked the firm if Blavo had been economical with the truth. He said, “I can confirm that we are in dispute with the Legal Aid Agency", but that, “it would be inappropriate to make any further comment at this stage although we will fully co-operate with any enquiries if required to do so”.