An events organiser who tricked a donor to give raffle prizes – before keeping the prizes for herself – has been barred from the profession. Shaneke Ellis, who was events executive for London firm Bircham Dyson Bell, started work in September 2015 but was dismissed 13 months later after her activities were uncovered.

According to a notice published by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Ellis falsely told various organisations that her husband worked for the firm in its events team.

One organisation donated a pair of cricket tickets as a prize to the firm’s Christmas raffle – Ellis told them a former employee had won the prize and gave a false postal address which was actually her own home.

The SRA said Ellis also received two prizes for a purported raffle in March 2016 which she retained for her own use.

She was found to have acted dishonestly, given a written rebuke and made to pay a £2,000 fine and £600 costs.

Ellis, a non-solicitor from Kennington in London, was also made subject to a section 43 notice preventing her from working in any regulated firm without permission from the SRA.

Meanwhile, the same restriction has been imposed on Smina Sadiq, a former legal executive at Clyde & Co Claims LLP in Manchester, after two findings of dishonesty. She had worked for the firm for six months when she created a letter in September 2017 and addressed it to another firm, backdating the letter to July 2017.

She also created a document which included false statements about the steps she had taken in progressing a client’s matter.