Receptionist banned for hiding loss of £520

The SRA has banned a legal receptionist from the profession after she lost client cash and tried to cover it up by falsifying a bank paying-in slip.

Bria Faun worked as a receptionist for Cheshire firm Dixon Rigby Keogh. In July 2017 the firm sent her to the bank with four cheques and £520.48 in cash to pay into the client account. When she arrived at the bank, she discovered that she had somehow misplaced the wad of money. She paid the cheques into the bank and headed back to the office to frantically search for the missing money, but to no avail.

On the flipside, she managed to find that pack of maltesers that had fallen behind the set of drawers

Rather than inform DRK, the panicked receptionist wrote on the firm's copy of the bank paying-in slip that she had paid in the money along with the cheques. The firm spotted that the account was short and quizzed Fraun, but she kept digging and claimed that there must have been a bank error.

DRK continued to investigate and in August 2017 hauled Faun into a disciplinary meeting. She finally fessed up and admitted that she'd lost the cash and falsified the bank paying-in slip. The firm fired Faun and replaced the missing money in the client account.

The SRA has now heard the matter and Faun admitted to the authority that she did falsify the slip. The SRA said that her dishonest conduct in covering up her mistake meant that she could not be trusted to work in a law firm. In a settlement agreement, the SRA has barred Faun from working at a law firm and ordered that she pay the SRA's costs of £300.

Dixon Rigby Keogh did not respond to a request for a comment.

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Comments

I completely agree the secretary needs to be banned for the fraud offence. However, what kind of culture must there be in DRK when a member of staff who has cocked something up for just £500 feels the need to hide it?

nobody comes out well from that do they? It's always the cover-up that gets you, not the cock-up.

Perhaps she felt she needed to hide it since the firm may have thought she stole it...

Can I ask what jurisdiction the SRA has to ask for costs from a non-qualified member of staff?

Pity she cuold not just have admitted she had lost it as it was no big deal and the firm could have replaced it quickly. On the other hand may be she did steal it. Hard to tell.

Well done that famous collective of poison dwarves, the SRA, for continuing to make a good living out of haranguing members of the profession - and their employees - out of theirs.

A committee of the failed sat to cast judgment on the unfortunate.

The sooner my firm remakes itself as a “legal consultancy” and casts off the joke that is “regulations” by these charlatans, the better.

Great to see SRA focusing in hauling in the big wins. This one took under 12 months!
Now, partners indulging in massive fraud with client funds? Nothing to see here, move on, move on ...

WTF? Talk about small beer. The SRA needs to sharpen up on dodgy West-End firms funnelling money from dodgy offshore family trusts and Russians into the UK.

@Tangent Boy - it says it was a settlement agreement so you can agree what you like.