The director of one of the country’s leading legal aid law firms has been ordered to pay back more than £22 million in public money after it fraudulently created about 23,000 fake claims in three years.

John Blavo, 57, a solicitor from Ghana, set up Blavo & Co Solicitors in June 2011. He lived a life of luxury with houses across the world and supercars on the driveway of his family home in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

His firm specialised in mental health law and legal aid cases. It grew so rapidly that by 2015 it had more than 200 staff in 18 offices across England and Wales, with a turnover of more than £11 million a year. At least 80 per cent of the