Tan Ikram

He studied at Wolverhampton Polytechnic where he obtained his LLB in 1988 and was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple in 1990.^[1] He was admitted as a solicitor of the Senior Courts in 1993.

Ikram started as a magistrates' clerk and joined Booth Bennett Solicitors (later IBB Solicitors) in 1993. He became a partner at IBB Solicitors in 1997 and from 2007 to 2009, he was a consultant at ABV Solicitors.^{[citation needed]}

Ikram was appointed as a Deputy District Judge (Magistrates' Court) in 2003 and district judge (Magistrates' Court) in 2009. In 2015, he was appointed as an associate judge on the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus. In 2017, he was appointed deputy senior district judge (Magistrates' Court).^[2]

Ikram received honorary Doctor of Law degrees from the University of West London^[3] and the University of Wolverhampton.^[4] He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to judicial diversity.^[5] He has spoken out about what he sees as the problems due to the lack of ethnic diversity in the police and the judiciary.^[6]

In 2023, Ikram acquitted a trans activist who had told a crowd at a rally in central London that "if you see a Terf, punch them in the fucking face."^[7][8]

Ikram was appointed to the Judicial Appointments Commission, a body which selects candidates for judicial office in courts and tribunals, for a period of three years from December 2023.^[9]

On 13 February 2024 Ikram, presiding over a case of three demonstrators carrying or wearing images appearing to glorify Hamas (the political and military movement governing in the Gaza Strip, and designated in the UK as a terrorist organization), found them guilty but let them off with conditional discharges, saying that "emotions ran very high on this issue". This judgement was subject to extensive criticism in the press.^[10][11] Contrast was drawn to a 20-week sentence he handed down against a man for sharing memes mocking George Floyd, the severity of which he boasted in a talk to visiting American law students.^[10]

It then transpired that Ikram had 'liked' an online posting by the pro-Palestinian barrister Sham Uddin condemning "Israeli terrorists in the United Kingdom, the United States, and of course Israel." The Campaign Against Antisemitism announced that they were therefore submitting a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office about Ikram's judgement in this case.^[12][13] On the 15 February Ikram referred himself to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) claiming that he had inadvertently “liked” the post.

On 11 June, the JCIO found he had not knowingly liked the post and that double tapping an image had inadvertently caused the like. He was, however, issued a formal warning for breaching guidance on social media use and making it known he was a judge on LinkedIn, resulting in "a perception of bias".^[14] The original recommendation had been one of formal advice, but the Lord Chancellor and the Lady Chief Justice increased it to formal warning, stating that "the judge’s actions caused significant reputational damage to the judiciary".

On 21 July 2023, PC Perry Lathwood arrested and handcuffed Jocelyn Agyemang because she refused to show a valid ticket for a bus journey although it later transpired that she had paid. Subsequently, Lathwood was charged with assault by beating. He was convicted of assault by Ikram.^[15] Rick Prior, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said that "cases like this have resulted in a huge crisis of confidence" amongst police officers while Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said that despite the conviction the Metropolitan Police was backing Lathwood.^[16] On 13 September PC Perry Lathwood has his criminal conviction quashed on appeal. [1]