Former Conservative Councillor, Monika Juneja (36) could be facing imprisonment after admitting to lying about being a qualified barrister in order to thrive.
The court was told that Juneja, who had become the deputy leader of the Conservative group at Guildford Borough Council had repeatedly told lies about her degree and law qualifications.
She was exposed by constituents living in green belt areas. They began looking into her background after raising several complaints regarding her work analysing areas of land for development.
Juneja began a degree in Sociology and Law in 1997, switching midway to Sociology and received a third-class degree.
She wanted to take a bar course and forged a letter from the university in order to get a place at BPP Law School because one must have at least a second-class degree to be accepted at the law school.
Juneja began the course in September 2001, yet failed three attempts at completing course modules successfully. She was consequently declared not competent in law in July 2003.
Furthermore, she went on to forge another document from BPP Law School. The document stated that she received a final assessment of very competent in law.
Prosecutor, Kate Wilkinson stated, “It is right to say that she [Juneja] is not entitled to call herself a barrister in any sense.”
Monika Juneja pleaded guilty 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- May 2014.
