NORTON Labour candidate Monika Narad turned her back on a career in law after being reprimanded by the Solicitor's Disciplinary Tribunal - the News can reveal.

The recently confirmed candidate for the May 3 local election says she works as a community organiser for a citizen engagement group - helping people to gain skills they need to enable them to help themselves.

In her biography, the first-time candidate says she is also a qualified solicitor.

But the News has discovered she was hauled in front of a tribunal in 2015 over allegations she breached Solicitors Regulation Authority rules while working at GS Law LLP based in Middlesex and Wolverhampton.

Ms Narad, who says she has been a member of the Labour Party since 2010, was accused of failing to keep properly written up accounting records or appropriate records of all dealings with client money; failing to carry out client reconciliations at five weekly intervals; withdrawing or permitting withdrawal of client money leading to a cash shortage on the client account; and failing to promptly remedy breaches of the rules on discovery by replacing money improperly withdrawn from the client account.

In breaching the Solicitors Account Rules, she was also found to have breached the principles which require solicitors to act with integrity, behave in a way that maintains public trust in the provision of legal services; run a firm or carry out a role effectively and in accordance with proper governance and sound financial and risk management principles; and to protect client money and assets.

A report of the hearing, however, states Ms Narad "admitted all of the allegations made against her, in full, at an early stage" but the tribunal ordered she be reprimanded and pay SRA costs of £1,000.

Co-accused solicitor Kanwar Bhan, whose actions led to a shortage on a client account of over £104,000, was struck off and ordered to pay costs of £18,000 after the tribunal made a finding of dishonesty.

The report went on to say Ms Narad had accepted a position of Compliance Officer for Finance and Administration without understanding what the role meant and failed to take steps to comply with the requirements of the position and the tribunal ruled she "had to accept some responsibility and culpability for what had happened" and that if she had carried out her role as COFA properly Bhan's misconduct may have come to light earlier.

The tribunal accepted she had no control over the circumstances in which the firm operated and no motivation for misconduct. The report described her as an "inexperienced solicitor" but said she had a career overseas before qualifying in England "so was not a complete novice".

When quizzed about the matter, Ms Narad's agent Geoff Dixon said: "She was a junior solicitor at the time. She got caught up in something that she was probably unaware of at the time.

"The issue was simply a technical issue down to inexperience; there was no dishonesty and she was given the lowest level of punishment."