A receptionist who lost client cash on the way to the bank and then tried to cover up her mistake has been barred from the profession.

Bria Faun, who worked for a Cheshire firm, admitting acting dishonestly after trying to falsify a paying-in slip to make it look like she had deposited the money.

Faun, a non-solicitor, had been with the firm more than a year when she was sent to the bank in July 2017 to pay four cheques and £520 in cash into the client bank account. When she arrived at the bank, she found she had lost the cash, and having paid in the cheques searched fruitlessly back at the office for the missing money.

Initially, she did not tell the firm she had lost the cash and maintained its absence from the account was due to the bank’s error. But in August 2017, when the firm probed further at a disciplinary meeting, Faun admitting to losing the money and adding details to the bank paying-in slip to give the impression it had been paid in.

The firm immediately dismissed her and replaced the missing money.

In a notice posted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, it was stated that falsifying records to mislead people and cover up her mistakes showed Faun could not be trusted to carry out a role in a law firm. In a regulatory settlement agreement, it was confirmed she would be made subject to a section 43 notice that prevents her working for any regulated firm without SRA permission.

She will also pay £300 costs.