Constance Briscoe has been kicked off the bench after her conviction for perverting the cause of justice.

The barrister and part-time judge was suspended from her judicial duties when she was arrested in 2012. She had set out to destroy the former Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, who had lied about asking his former wife to accept some speeding points on his behalf. Huhne was sentenced to eight months for perverting the course of justice. Briscoe however, who was convicted of the same charge after lying to police that she barely knew Huhne and Vicky Pryce, was sentenced to 16 months. Presumably a jobbing recorder and tribunal judge must be held to a higher standard than a member of the Cabinet and Privy Council.

Briscoe relaxing at home before going to prison.

Briscoe is the tabloids' darling and was in the headlines long before the Huhne/Pryce case. She is widely described as Britain's top black female judge, which must mystify Mrs Justice Dobbs. But then Mrs Justice Dobbs didn't write two warts-and-all autobiographies, nor did her partner very publicly leave her for a woman 50 years her junior, nor did her mother unsuccessfully sue her for libel.

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office confirmed in a statement this week that Briscoe "has been removed from judicial office without further investigation by the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice following her conviction".