Former Conservative councillor pleads guilty to forgery, deception and falsely claiming to be a barrister

An update to the story of Monika Juneja, who used to be a Conservative councillor in Guildford:

Monika Juneja … pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery, obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception, and wilfully pretending to be barrister as the trial at the Old Bailey got under way.

Juneja, of Doverfield Road, Guildford, will be sentenced in June.

Offences she admitted included giving false qualifications to Bromley Council, and constructing false letters from the University of Greenwich and the BPP Law School outlining qualifications she did not hold, between July 2000 and May 2014.

When she was first charged, the Conservatives decided to keep her on in charge of planning rather than asking her to step aside until the issue had been resolved. That was a poor political judgement (possibly influenced by the fact that Juneja is the business partner of the council leader, who appeared as a character witness).

But even more problematic was Robin Hooper’s  previous investigation into the case, as the Surrey Advertiser reports:

[Guildford Council] commissioned Dr Robin Hooper to investigate the allegations about her qualifications…

Dr Hooper’s report concluded that Juneja had not done anything wrong by saying she was a barrister despite not being called to the bar, but this was based on misinformation from the Bar Council, which was subsequently clarified when the investigation ended. However, the council said it would not reopen the investigation.

UPDATE: She was sentenced to 14 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to complete 200 hours of community service.