Disgraced lawyer caught forging signature to win injunction
A suspended lawyer’s brazen bid to keep practising law behind his own back has spectacularly blown up in his face — after a High Court judge caught him red-handed forging a colleague’s signature to sneak through an injunction.
Innocent Tepeka, already barred from practising by the Malawi Law Society, thought he could pull a fast one by slapping the name of a respected law firm on court papers — without so much as telling them.
But the scam was rumbled within hours, sparking a dramatic court showdown that has now landed the disgraced lawyer in the firing line of both the legal watchdog and the police.
The astonishing deception played out in Commercial Cause Number 302 of 2026, a case involving Nancy Chagunda and Darlington Benny, before High Court Commercial Division Judge Trouble Kalua.
Court papers show summons and an urgent injunction application were filed on August 11, brazenly bearing the name of law firm CB Edwards & Co — and the forged signature of its managing partner, Edward Chagalamuka.
Unaware anything was amiss, Judge Kalua granted the injunction on August 13. But the house of cards came crashing down just hours later, when the real law firm blew the whistle.
CB Edwards & Co’s litigation manager Geoffrey Gondwe stormed to alert the court that his firm had never been hired — and that Chagalamuka, the supposed signatory, wasn’t even in the country at the time.
Hauled before the judge to explain himself, a cornered Tepeka made a stunning confession — admitting he had taken on the case while under suspension, and had forged Chagalamuka’s signature to make it look legitimate.
Delivering his blistering ruling on August 14, Judge Kalua did not hold back, declaring the lawyer’s conduct had “graduated into full-blown criminality”.
“This whole Mr Tepeka’s conduct brings the profession of the law into serious disrepute. And even more worryingly, forgery and uttering forged documents are criminal offences,” the judge fumed.
And it soon emerged this was far from Tepeka’s first brush with scandal. The judge revealed the lawyer was already facing scrutiny from the Malawi Law Society over a staggering K50 million in missing client funds — a case dating back to July last year.
“Well, clearly counsel has gone completely rogue now. This is something we simply cannot ignore,” an incensed Judge Kalua declared.
The judge has now thrown the book at Tepeka — referring him to the Malawi Law Society’s disciplinary committee and personally handing his file to the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department at Police Headquarters in Lilongwe’s Area 30.
The bombshell ruling has also torn up the original court proceedings, forcing the claimant back to square one — this time, presumably, with a lawyer who actually has a licence to practise.
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