A barrister who was disbarred after she was convicted of failing to disclose a change in her financial circumstances affecting her entitlement to council tax benefits and then found to have lied to an appellate court has lost a bid to continue practising pending an appeal.

Sky Bibi, 40, was disbarred earlier this year following her conviction at Cheshire Magistrates’ Court under the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Detection of Fraud Enforcement) (England) Regulations 2013.

Her failure to disclose the change to her employment status and receipt of income meant she received £1,054 to which she was not entitled. Bibi, called in 2007, was sentenced to a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay a fine of £1,000 and a victim surcharge of £20.

However, the sentence was changed to a 12-month community order and a 28-day curfew after Bibi appealed her conviction at Chester Crown Court. Her appeal was dismissed and the judge found that Bibi had given evidence and made submissions that were dishonest.

The Bar Tribunals & Adjudication Service (BTAS) said that, in relation to Bibi’s criminal conviction, ‘we find it impossible to do [anything] other than disbar’ and suspended her practising certificate with immediate effect.

In the High Court yesterday, Bibi sought to overturn the suspension pending appeal and said the sanction imposed was ‘completely unfair, unprecedented, unjust and unlawful’. Bibi told Mr Justice Bourne that she has applied to the Criminal Cases Review Commission to challenge her conviction and said BTAS had ‘acted prematurely’.

Leo Davidson, for the Bar Standards Board, told the court that Bibi ‘has been found to be dishonest’ by both the Crown court judge and BTAS. Bibi had shown ‘disrespect for the ordinary hallowed status of evidence under oath’, he added.

Bourne dismissed Bibi’s application, saying he was ‘not persuaded that the merits of the appeal are so clear as to justify departing from the presumption’ that a barrister’s practising certificate will be immediately suspended upon disbarment. Bibi was also ordered to pay the BSB’s costs in the sum of £2,100 including VAT.

The court heard that Bibi’s substantive appeal against sanction may be heard in the new year.