Law firm employee gave own CV reference through fake email account

Alaw firm worker who went to great lengths to validate her false CV has been barred from working in the profession again.

Sameena Usmani began working as an administrative assistant at Buckinghamshire firm Clarity Family Law Solicitors in March last year.

But she was subsequently dismissed after the firm found she had submitted a CV including false information about her employment history.

According to a notice published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Usmani had acquired a domain name which was deliberately similar to that of another firm, then used that domain name to provide her new firm with a fake email address which would supply a reference for her.

She then responded to that request falsely purporting to be someone else and provided false information to corroborate her manufactured employment history.

The SRA found her conduct to be dishonest and made a section 43 order against her. The order prevents her from working for any regulated firm without SRA permission.

Meanwhile, the SRA has also refused to grant a practising certificate to Juhi Valia, after she was judged not to be a fit and proper person to practise as a registered foreign lawyer.

In October last year, an academic misconduct panel at BPP University found that Valia had intentionally plagiarised most of a paper submitted as part of her LLM degree. The panel found there was a serious degree of premeditation and recklessness in her conduct.

The SRA did not consider Valia rehabilitated at the time of her registration application, a decision upheld by an adjudication panel of the SRA after Valia appealed.