A dishonest ‘ambulance chasing’ solicitor who overcharged the NHS while pursuing clinical negligence cases has been struck off after a judge ruled that fining him £30,000 was too lenient.

Andrew Good, who founded Rapid Response Solicitors in Hull in 2003, had tried to charge £400 an hour to represent patients suing the health service.

The lawyer was fined last year after his fees were found to be “grossly excessive”. However, the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) appealed the decision, and earlier this month a judge ruled in the High Court that Good be struck off the Roll of Solicitors after finding he had been dishonest.

More than 150 cases involving Good’s firm were analysed at the original tribunal. In 22 of them, Rapid Response charged £400 an hour in fees. Despite the panel finding “most of the work” carried out should have been billed at between £111 and £146 an hour, it failed to make a ruling that he was dishonest.

The company had also tried to claim £37,298 but was forced to reduce that by 91 per cent to an acceptable £3,330.

Mr Good had insisted he had come up with the £400-an-hour rate after conducting online research.

When the case came before the High Court earlier this year, Lord Justice Flaux ruled: “Even if Mr Good had a genuine belief that he was entitled to charge these rates, it is difficult to see how that could exonerate him from a finding of dishonesty.