A FORMER council planning officer was spared jailed after she pretended to be a qualified barrister to get ahead in her career.

Monika Juneja used false qualifications to get jobs including a role as a planning officer at Brighton and Hove City Council in March 2009.

She repeatedly lied about her degree and law qualifications and went on to become a Tory councillor and deputy leader of the Conservative group at Guildford Borough Council, a court heard.

The 36-year-old was exposed by constituents who investigated her background after complaining about her work to identifying areas of land for development. She was arrested in May last year.

Juneja, of Doverfield Road, Guildford, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to three counts of forgery dating back to 2000, obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception and a charge of “wilfully pretending to be a barrister” between January 2010 and May 2014.

Yesterday she was handed a 14 month prison sentence suspended for two years and was ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.

Judge Gerald Gordon said: "For a period of some 14 years you have lived a lie about your qualifications and your professional status.

"You said it started as a result of parental pressure. There is likely to be an element of that but I am satisfied you yourself wanted the status and the prospect of success and advancement that it would bring.

"It was status rather than financial gain that lies at the heart of what you did although there clearly must have been financial gain.

"You did not actually try to practice at the bar or claim to anyone you had completed a pupillage. Instead you used the ongoing pretence to enhance your standing in the workplace, and as far as status is concerned, to enhance your standing in the community, and it was that standing that ultimately led to your downfall."

Prosecutor Kate Wilkinson previously outlined a catalogue of lies and pretence dating back to Juneja's university years. The court heard how she forged at least one document to give her grades which were "very far from the truth."

Defending, Howard Godfrey QC said Juneja had been the victim of a "witch hunt” who, although she was not qualified as stated, was "very good" at her job. He said she panicked after leaving university with a third class degree due to parental pressure to do well.

Background

Monika Juneja received a third class sociology degree from Greenwich University.

She began a course at BPP Law School but failed and was declared not competent in law.

She forged a document stating she had a 2.1 degree in sociology from Greenwich University and another document from BPP Law School, which said she was very competent in law.

She landed a licensing support officer job earning nearly £20,000 a year at Bromley Council.

She used this as a spring board to get more work, as planning officer in Tower Hamlets in 2007, at Brighton and Hove Council in the same role in 2009 and later as a solicitor and lawyer for two other councils.