A FORMER senior Conservative councillor who pretended to be a qualified barrister to raise her profile wept in court yesterday after she was spared prison.

Monika Juneja, 36, became deputy leader at Guildford Borough Council in 2011 after lying that she got a second-class degree and passed bar modules with flying colours.

But the facade came tumbling down after constituents investigated her background over their opposition to her work in identifying areas of greenbelt land for development.

Ms Juneja pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey last month to three counts of forgery from 2000, obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception and a charge of “wilfully pretending to be a barrister” between January 2010 and May last year.

Judge Gerald Gordon sentenced her to 14 months imprisonment suspended for two years and 200 hours of community service.