Fiona Onasanya

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Respondent, a solicitor and Member of Parliament, was convicted at the Central Criminal Court on 19 December 2018 of doing an act tending and intended to pervert the course of justice, arising from knowingly providing false information to police about the identity of the driver of her car caught by a speed camera. She was sentenced to three months' imprisonment plus a £115 victim surcharge. The Tribunal, relying on the certificate of conviction, found Allegation 1 (breaches of Principles 1, 2 and 6) proved beyond reasonable doubt, and made an express finding of dishonesty applying the Ivey test. Aggravated by dishonesty and the deliberate nature of the conduct; mitigated by voluntary self-reporting, full cooperation and an otherwise unblemished career. The Tribunal found no exceptional circumstances and ordered the Respondent be struck off the Roll.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No taking unfair advantage
• Uphold public trust in the profession

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was dishonest
• Offence was deliberate
• Multiple opportunities to correct the dishonest representation, so not a momentary lapse
• Respondent was in public life and her status as a solicitor was known, impacting the reputation of the profession
• Potential for an innocent third party to face prosecution

Mitigating factors:

• Voluntarily notified the SRA and cooperated throughout
• Single episode in an otherwise unblemished career
• No monetary gain
• Offence did not take place over a lengthy period
• Disastrous personal and professional consequences for the Respondent
• Involvement of the Respondent's brother in the underlying facts