A solicitor has been given a 15 month jail sentence after being caught trying to smuggle cannabis, hidden in her bra, to a drug dealer held in police custody.
31 year-old Daniela Scotece was told by a judge at Derby Crown Court yesterday that her "disgraceful conduct" had brought the entire legal profession into disrepute.
The judge also described how she had "manipulated the proceedings of the court" after telling officials that her client had hearing trouble as part of an elaborate plan to smuggle the drugs to him.
The solicitor had insisted that her client, Emmanuel Samuels, would not be able to have his preliminary hearing held via a video link because of his condition and so he needed to attend in person.
At the hearing the courtroom then proceeded to hear how Scotece planned to hand over 1.6 grammes of cannabis, hidden in her underwear, to Mr Samuels, who is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence for separate drug offences.
Scotece told police the class C drug was for personal use after being apprehended by sniffer dogs on her way to court, but later claimed she had been forced into supplying the drug after receiving phone calls from Mr Samuels.
Craig Ferguson, defending for Scotece, said, "She was under considerable pressure. She was being harassed and threatened by Samuels’ friends and associates to bring drugs into prison."
Scotece was reduced to tears as she heard her lawyer say, "She has been stripped of her dignity, stripped of her job, her career, her ambitions and her dreams ."
"She has for the sake of £15 worth of cannabis lost absolutely everything. There can be no greater humiliation than that," he added.
But the judge, who heard how Scotece and Samuels had become friends, was not convinced Scotece had been forced into supplying the drugs, and said she had completely blurred the line of professional conduct.
