The Flying Retrying Dutchman.
A lawyer who is the author of an upcoming legal textbook has admitted that most of his publisher's biography was incorrect.
Fabian Krougman's The Law and Practice of Private Prosecutions will be published by Bloomsbury Professional in August.
Co-authored by criminal barrister Chloe Ashley, Bloomsbury says the book “sets out the statutory bases, and the practical issues involved, in bringing and conducting a private prosecution”.
Its blurb notes that “The rise in the use of private prosecution is of increasing importance to criminal practitioners as well as civil litigators and commercial practitioners”.
Bloomsbury's biography of Krougman stated that “Fabian is a CILEx Advocate (with higher rights of audience) who has been in practice since 2008.”
Bio, before and after ROF.
However, Krougman does not appear on the CILEx database and a spokesperson for CILEx confirmed to ROF that "CILEx Regulation has not authorised Fabian Krougman as an Advocate” and "he isn’t a member either”.
Krougman told ROF, “The information on the book will be changed. I was (and will be) a legal executive and I am an advocate but not via CILEx”.
Bloomsbury updated his profile this week to remove the inaccuracies.
Although the original profile claimed that Krougman had higher rights of audience, he confirmed to ROF that he did not have them yet, “but I am studying for it”.
The Dutch lawyer provided ROF with a copy of BPP’s feedback for the oral assessment component of his higher rights of audience module, which he sat in September 2025. It shows he fell short of the 180 pass mark, scoring 163/300.
Krougman said he made the claim in anticipation of “getting the results I wanted”.
His profile also stated that “His international practice is focused on (International) Criminal Defence… with a specialism in private prosecutions”.
Krougman explained to ROF that in fact “I did not do any Private Prosecution”, but that, “I think it isn’t relevant. I can write about [it] because I know the law and the precedents”.
“In the Netherlands I have participated in a form of private prosecutions so this is not a lie”, he added.
Addressing the claim in his biography that he was a “Certified Mediator in England and Wales”, Krougman initially told ROF he was certified by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.
However, when ROF pointed out that there was no record of him on CIARB’s register of members and that his CIARB certificate showed his credentials expired at the end of 2024, Krougman explained that he had “reapplied to CIARB and contacted CILEX for the same”.
Krougman provided another certificate which recorded that he had passed a training course run by the Society of Mediators. “I have a mediation certificate so I can mediate”, he told ROF, noting, “I am just a mediator and not a certificated mediator at the moment”.
A source who welcomed Bloomsbury's announcement of a textbook on private prosecutions told ROF, “Against the depressing backdrop of the Post Office prosecutions, it is justified to expect such an authoritative, single source for practitioners to be authored by established experts in the field”.
“I remain sincerely concerned that a leading practitioners’ handbook on part of the criminal law that is rife with abuse, and which is so much under the glare of the public view, will come from an individual whose qualifications are entirely unclear”, they said.
Comments
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Name the source eh? Or it’s just sniping gossip and using rof to conduct professional grudges
He had a difficult year for personal reasons and let his subs lapse
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"A source who welcomed Bloomsbury's announcement of a textbook on private prosecutions told ROF, “Against the depressing backdrop of the Post Office prosecutions, it is justified to expect such an authoritative, single source for practitioners to be authored by established experts in the field”.
“I remain sincerely concerned that a leading practitioners’ handbook on part of the criminal law that is rife with abuse, and which is so much under the glare of the public view, will come from an individual whose qualifications are entirely unclear”, they said."
Picture their surprise when they find out we let people without any legal training imprison others and that we appoint people as judges in areas they have never practised. Tedious megayawn.
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I like the idea of aspirational biographies.
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Interesting that this would likely have stayed inaccurate, on the blurb of a book all about disclosure.
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He is a cosplay barrister - photos in a wig and gown, visits the Temple. His CV was available on his website […]
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Yeah so I ain't buying that book!
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His record before the Dutch courts is... something https://uitspraken.rechtspraak.nl/resultaat?zoekterm=Krougman&inhoudsindicatie=zt0&publicatiestatus=ps1&sort=Relevance
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I think this piece is misleading by not explaining that he's a highly qualified and well respected lawyer in his own jurisdiction, who has had an appalling past year on a personal level. He was previously registered with both CILEX and CIARB and let his memberships lapse over the past year. This is not the 'gotcha' it's presented as.
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TLDR: Man let his certification lapse while watching his mother dying; someone with a grudge contacted RoF and stayed anonymous.
Quite spectacular that "Retrying Dutchman" isn't the weakest part of the story.
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Holding yourself out as cilex qualified AND having higher rights when you don’t (even if you think you might in the future) is plainly dishonest. Professional regulators must be alive to this re his fitness to practice.
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Someone very pro-Fabes in the comments. Just a motivated stranger I’m sure.
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Anonymous xx:53 - he must have qualified and gained massive respect in his own jurisdiction in the shortest of time then. Here's a Dutch judgment from 2021 in which the court states that Krougman isn't a qualified Dutch lawyer at all (para. 3.13):
https://letselschademagazine.nl/2021/rbmne-170321
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Jesus, this chap has himself all dressed up like a barrister on his X profile (wig & gown 'n all). He really is going all in with the pretending.
He's also exceptionally rude to others on X and constantly lords over people saying he's a big shot lawyer and they're not. What a piece of work.
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09.50 the cases reveal he’s the patron saint of lost causes and should be applauded for taking on difficult claims
ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2017:4220 ‘application was filed entirely unnecessarily’
ECLI:NL:RBZWB:2019:726 ‘applicant abused the right to seek recusal’
ECLI:NL:RBNHO:2020:6626 ‘proceedings were instituted entirely unnecessarily or wrongly’
ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2020:5304 ‘proceedings have been wrongly initiated’
ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2020:5854 ‘claim does not belong in the partial dispute procedure’
ECLI:NL:RBROT:2021:1882 ‘There is no basis for a claim’
ECLI:NL:RBLIM:2021:4741 ‘The claim is still premature’
ECLI:NL:RBZWB:2021:4191 recusal application ‘manifestly unfounded’
ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2022:4170 ‘The claim is unfounded’
ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2024:5888 ‘The claim is manifestly groundless’
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“I think it isn’t relevant. I can write about [it] because I know the law and the precedents"
That might be true if he hadn't, by his own admission on twitter, failed the criminal law component of his Higher Rights exam. So turns out he hasn't done a private prosecution AND failed his criminal law exam.
I appreciate that he appears to have had a rough year personally, but a sympathy vote does not suddenly make you qualified to write a legal textbook.
In all of this I feel most sorry for Chloe Ashley who has excellent credentials and is being dragged down by this.
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10:23 - unarguable, totally without merit, abuse of process. That would get you swiftly defenestrated by your regulator. If only he had a regulator...
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Bloomsbury Unprofessional.
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Awwww. He did his best.
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It really worries me that one can rely upon personal hardship to excuse oneself from fundamental dishonesty. If a registered Barrister or solicitor had done this you’d be struck off. In fact, there have been many paralegals who have done this and ended up being barred from the profession.
Whilst I am sympathetic for his personal situation it does not excuse dishonesty. It diminishes the public trust in the profession. He ought to be reported because he more than makes out that he is a qualified and practising barrister.
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Reminds me of lawyers who write case reports- always on cases ran by other lawyers - and yet they are never able to produce their own published judgments.
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It seems we've found a Dutch Lord Harley.
This bloke has pictures on his website profile of him dressed in full barristerial garb, wearing a Middle Temple tie and yet he has the same qualifications as a McKenzie Friend.
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"I like the idea of aspirational biographies."
Yes, I'm just putting the finishing touches to my own right now.
The bit about how I took Charlton Athletic to the Champions League practically wrote itself, but I'm struggling a bit with the chapter in which I talk about my day long threesome with Scarlett Johansson and Cyclone from Gladiators.
It's the dialogue that's the tricky part.
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At the time he wrote the book he had the subs - how on earth is it matter for the regulators? It was true at the time
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‘At the time he wrote the book’? Book’s not even out yet m8
As for being ‘true at the time’ it was only changed this week apparently after RoF asked questions, so that’s not accurate.
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"Scarlett, ready? Cyclone, ready?"
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I looked up his professional qualifications some time ago and realised they were minimal, irrespective of the dressing up as a barrister photographs and Twitter posts. Anyone considering instructing him to do legal work could and probably would have done the same
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Anonymous 23 January 26 09:27: At least we require judges in this country to have practised law. In France, law grads go straight to Judge School and are not required to have practised a single day in their lives.
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I've had a difficult personal year so I plan to write a guide to performing testicular surgeries. Looks like some commenters could benefit.
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"I've had a difficult personal year so I plan to write a guide to performing testicular surgeries. Looks like some commenters could benefit."
I mean, it was a tough day for sure, but surgery would have been total overkill.
Once I'd finished picking up the crushed alcopop cans [etc]
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Perhaps he should have called it "My Booky Wook" and then no-one would have checked on him.
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From his Twitter:
"In the article will also be my fitness for being an author because I never did a private prosecution in my life. That is true. "
Please take my £81!!
"But I know the law. And I think you can write about a subject even when you never did one."
Physician heal thyself
"There might be some remarks in the article about the cases I lost in The Netherlands and which can be found online. not all my cases are reported, and the cases I litigate are the hardest because I always try to settle beforehand"
Oh.
"I did not pass the civil and the criminal. I passed the advocacy part but not the written exam part."
So just the two exams failed. Fair enough.
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One problem, for Krougman, is that his dishonest bio blurb from the Bloomsbury website has percolated into every online bookseller’s site. He is able to sanitise his publisher‘s website profile but not the others.
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from the CV on his website "At the current moment I am gaining knowledge about the law in England and Wales through the courses offered by Cilex and gaining my Practice certificate. After this is done, I will do the SRA Higher Rights Course and after that I will transfer to the Bar."
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@15:49
Not hugely reassuring that someone who pitches himself as a professional regulatory lawyer ("Defender of Professionals - meet the advocate who protects your reputation!!!") seems to think that once he is a CILEX lawyer he can do the SRA HRA assessment, and then transfer to the bar.
It's a bit of a sad story really. This guy really, really, really wants to be a hotshot lawyer and be admired by people. He just doesn't want to (or cannot) pass all the pesky exams that actual lawyers have to pass before they are released into the wild. So he's cutting corners, being vague, and pretending to be something he is not. He's just a Walter Mitty character. I just hope he doesn't have any actual clients.
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‘Larp till can’t anymore’ this could be the plot of a lighthearted comedy
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I see his "Professional Negligence Lawyers Association" profile states that he is "Cilex Lawyer", number "50192190", and qualified "01/12/2001".
One might consider this series of statements .... negligent.
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23 January 15:46hrs
Sounds a bit like Little Johnny Reynolds MP 🤥 who called himself a Solicitor (when he wasn’t) for over 10 years.
No-one took any disciplinary action in that significant and appalling and lying case though and he still remains in this largely dissembling and utterly incompetent Government. Just the sort of job for such a charlatan apparently!
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My views have hardened since this story first appeared. It isn’t simply a case of a man under great personal stress overlooking some clerical tasks of renewing professional memberships. He is seeking sympathy on this basis, rather than expressing contrition for misrepresenting his qualifications. And he still has a banner image of himself dressed as an English barrister on his Twitter profile
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It’s kicking off over on X. Looks like the guy has previous and was done 6 years ago for pretending to be a barrister:
https://x.com/search?q=%23krougman&src=typed_query&f=live
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This article focuses on an issue with a co-author’s biographical blurb, not on Chloe Ashley’s qualifications or work. Chloe Ashley is a well-established and respected criminal barrister in her own right, and nothing here calls her expertise, integrity, or contribution to the book into question. Conflating a corrected publisher bio about someone else with her professional standing is unfair and misleading, and distracts from the substance of the work itself.
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Using photos from a moot at the “South Eastern Circuit Bar Mess Foundation Advanced International Advocacy Course at Keble College, Oxford” to make people think one is a barrister is absurd.
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Yes, having had a brief read around online he appears to be Lord Harley's even more absurd Dutch cousin.
Like his famous British relation it's hard to know where mental illness ends and graft begins.
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"nothing here calls her expertise, integrity, or contribution to the book into question"
It very slightly calls her judgement into question as one does have to ask how and why she ended up in a co-authoring arrangement with someone like Mr Krougman.
His professional persona doesn't stand up to much scrutiny once any is applied, so there is a bit of an eyebrow raise in her direction.
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Conflating a corrected publisher bio about someone else with her professional standing is unfair and misleading…
Where‘s the conflation? Can’t find any.
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Deeper scrutiny and further revelations over the weekend show that Krougman is not and never has been qualified as an “advocaat” (the equivalent of a barrister) in the Netherlands, but has worked as an unqualified legal representative handling low value civil litigation eg personal injuries in his local courts. No shame in that, but there is in pretending to be something else. He also seems to have had a long-held aspiration to become an English barrister, and a rather anachronistic vision of an English barrister at that, wielding a fountain pen and smoking a cigar at a desk laden with briefs tied up in pink ribbon, sharing chambers with other gentlemen in the Temple c.1960. At one time in or around 2016 he even described himself in his professional emails as a barrister, until firmly told by the Bar Standards Board that he had no right to do so. He claims that this was an honest mistake, but that’s extremely hard to believe. He was not even eligible to take the Bar Transfer Test as he is not an “advocaat” so was never in any genuine process of transfer to take that test and become an English barrister at all. Nor was he entitled to temporary call whilst instructed in an English case. And a person so infatuated with the historic traditions and costume of the English Bar must surely have realised that he could not call himself a barrister without a ceremony of Call to the Bar by one of the four Inns of Court.
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This is a deeply strange turn of events. Some may claim they saw through it, but others will inevitably have been taken in. Wigs, tins and all, an expensive piece of cosplay that, to a casual observer, could have passed as the real thing.
I have sympathy for personal difficulties, but they do not excuse calculated deception. For some, he was a figure to admire. It is now clear that the façade is collapsing in real time. In truth, there were warning signs. The moment he started throwing around the “C” word online, his demeanour shifted, and it was obvious something was off.
But to misrepresent yourself so fundamentally, to present as something you are not, is not merely disappointing. It is corrosive. It trades on the trust of others and cheapens professions that demand years of sacrifice, scrutiny, and expense. Many of the people who followed him, engaged with him, and perhaps took him seriously are investing tens of thousands in training to become barristers. Against that backdrop, this isn’t just embarrassing. It is insulting.