WHEN she was 17, Sofie Scott was told she would never walk again after breaking her back in a road accident.

But today, the “independent and stubborn” businesswoman runs a successful company.

The 32-year-old is managing director of the legal recruitment consultancy ASH elite.

She suffered devastating injuries when she was run over by a car in her native Sweden. Doctors told her as a teenager that she would use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

“I’m fiercely independent and stubborn. There was just no way I was going to let something like a broken back get in my way,” she said.

“At every point in my life I have faced challenges that needed to be overcome. To me, it’s second nature and whether it’s a broken back, or some other kind of issue, then you can ride above them with the necessary determination.”

Founded in 2015, her business serves law firms in Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. It acts at all levels from partner to office junior and is the only one of its kind in Dorset. It says 94.4 per cent of the candidates it sent for interview last year were offered a position.

Sofie, a semi-finalist in the Business Mother of the Year category at last year’s Dorset Venus Awards, said she was “hungry for growth” and hoped to recruit up to four staff herself in the coming years.

“There are several hundred legal practices across the four counties so the market is very big. I reckon we’re just scraping the surface at the moment,” she said.

Sofie is a driving force behind the Dorset Legal Awards, launched recently, alongside Rob Rutherford of IT consultancy QuoStar.

Dan Tout, partner with chartered accountants and business advisers PKF Francis Clark, said ASH Elite had quickly exceeded its own ambitious targets .

He added: “We’ve been involved from the very beginning, providing a range of services from Xero cloud accounting to advice on VAT and software.

“Sofie is a very dynamic and determined woman and it’s a real privilege to work with her on growing and developing the business.”