FORMER MP and commercial property lawyer, Fiona Onasanya has been struck off as a solicitor after serving three months in prison after being charged for perverting the course of justice.
Onasanya was subjected to a disciplinary trial in which she was struck off for failing to act with “integrity”.
Onasanya had qualified as a solicitor from the University of Hertfordshire in 2015 but stopped practising in 2017 when she was elected Labour MP for Peterborough
Panel chairman Edward Nally said: “As a parliamentarian makes the law, so a solicitor must uphold the law and rule of law, and sadly in this case, Ms Onasanya has failed in those duties. We must strike off Ms Onasanya from the roll of solicitors.”
"That conviction, we are aware, has led to disastrous consequences for Ms Onasanya both personally and professionally.”
"As a solicitor there are professional consequences that follow from a proven act of dishonesty that has been found by a jury after trial." She was ordered to pay £6,562 to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
This latest blow comes after the 35-year-old lost her seat in Peterborough.
Shortly after she was elected MP of Peterborough, Onasanya faced accusations of being behind the wheel when her car was spotted being driven at 41mph in a 30mph in Thorney.
She alongside her brother Festus Onasanya were found guilty, with the latter being jailed for 10 months for perverting the course of justice after he falsely filled out her Notice of Intended Prosecution.
Onasanya served 28 days of her three-month prison sentence and continued to sit as an MP, receiving her £77,379 salary, despite being expelled from the Labour party.
Following a failed appeal against her conviction in March, Onasanya eventually lost her seat after a successful recall petition.
In mitigation, Onasanya told the panel she was pursuing avenues to clear her name. “I maintain that I did not do an act tending or intending to pervert the course of public justice,” she said.
The University of Hertfordshire graduate insisted the speeding incident did not have a “negative effect” on anybody.