Solicitor's Jail Term 'a Lesson'

**Standard Dave** · 04-22-07, 08:28 AM

The jailing of a solicitor who hid cannabis in her bra and attempted to smuggle the drug into a custody suite is a lesson to other lawyers, it is claimed..

Geoffrey Negus, spokesman for the Solicitors' Regulation Authority, said legal staff must maintain a professional relationship with clients.

His comments came as Daniela Scotece began a 15-month prison sentence for possessing drugs with intent to supply.

Sentencing the former solicitor at Derby Crown Court yesterday, Judge Andrew Hamilton said that it was becoming common for solicitors and clerks to regard themselves as friends of defendants.

Mr Negus told the Post: "This is obviously a serious matter and demonstrates that solicitors would be wise to maintain a purely professional relationship with clients."

Scotece, 31, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for hiding 1.6 grammes of cannabis in her bra to smuggle it into a meeting with her client Emanuel Samuels.

Mr Negus added that Scotece will also face disciplinary proceedings later in the year.

The court heard how Scotece, of Sheridan Way, Sherwood, was snared by staff at the Nottingham Bridewell Suite on August 31 last year, with the aid of a sniffer dog.

She told officers she didn't have any drugs on her, but they strip- searched her and found the cannabis under her left breast.

Suspicions was raised after a number of phone calls between herself and Samuels, serving a jail sentence in Leicester, had been intercepted.

The phone conversations were transcripted and some of them were read out in court.

Sarah Knight, prosecuting, said the pair were using coded messages to organise the supply of the Class C drug.

One of the messages said: "Make sure that my daughter is wrapped up tight when you take her to bed."

Another phone call began with Scotece saying to Samuels: "Hiya bug."

Miss Knight added that Samuels had been due to appear at Nottingham Magistrates' Court via video link on the date of the offence, but Scotece arranged for him to be there in person.

"All this was set up for the end of August," she said. "A plot had already been hatched that drugs would be supplied to Samuels in prison."

In mitigation, Craig Ferguson, for Scotece, said she had made a "chronic misjudgment".

He said she had a troubled mental state at the time of the offence, and had attempted suicide in October. She had faced pressure and threats from Samuels' friends and family.

Scotece cried in the dock as Mr Ferguson urged the judge to spare her from prison.

Samuels, 23, of no fixed address, who is already serving a seven-year sentence for previous drugs offences, received an additional 12 months for aiding and abetting, counselling and procuring drugs.

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/di...pNodeId=133951

This is the follow up to a story I posted at the time of the arrest and first court apperance.

**Piggybank Cop** · 04-22-07, 09:08 AM

Let’s hear it for equal opportunity.

**countybear** · 04-22-07, 10:28 AM

A lesson in leniency...

I'd more like to see 1 year on the possession, 5 more for introduction of contraband, 3 more for criminal conspiracy, 3 for compounding a felony, and permanent removal from the bar.

**k-9max** · 04-22-07, 11:01 AM

Kudos to the staff, and the K9!
Job well done!

**Standard Dave** · 04-22-07, 12:18 PM

Originally Posted by countybear

A lesson in leniency...

I'd more like to see 1 year on the possession, 5 more for introduction of contraband, 3 more for criminal conspiracy, 3 for compounding a felony, and permanent removal from the bar.

WE are lucky to get anyone sent down this was a result for supply of a very small amount of class C drugs.