A barrister has been accused by a judge of using “entirely fictitious” cases generated by artificial intelligence (AI) to support an asylum claim by migrants.

Chowdhury Rahman was criticised by the judge who said there was “overwhelming” evidence that he had used software like ChatGPT to prepare his legal research.

When the immigration barrister presented his submissions, he baffled the judge by citing cases that were “entirely fictitious”, “non-existent” or “wholly irrelevant”.

Mr Rahman was found not only to have used AI to prepare his work, but “failed thereafter to undertake any proper checks on the accuracy”, the tribunal was told.

Upper tribunal judge Mark Blundell said Mr Rahman tried to “hide” that he had used AI and “wasted” the tribunal’s time. He said he was now considering reporting Mr Rahman to the Bar Standards Board.