Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2006
Source: Portsmouth News (UK)
Copyright: 2006 Portsmouth News.
Contact: http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk/ContactUs.asp
Website: http://www.portsmouthtoday.co.uk
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2411

LAWYER JAILED FOR INVENTING STORIES

A HAVANT solicitor caught inventing stories to get a client off a 
drugs offence has been jailed for three years.

David Lancaster was secretly filmed by undercover journalist Neil 
Ansell, who was posing as a client.

The reporter told Lancaster he had sold a wrap of cocaine to a friend 
and had been arrested by police.

Lancaster gave the reporter excuses he could use to the police to 
explain away any links he had with the drugs deal.

The 56-year-old, who worked as a partner for Warner, Goodman & 
Streat, denied attempting to incite another to pervert the course of justice.

But a jury at Exeter Crown Court today found Lancaster, of 
Harbourside, Havant, guilty and he was sentenced to three years in prison.

Judge Graham Cottle told Lancaster: 'You broke every rule in the book 
in a breathtaking display of unprofessional conduct.'

During a meeting in December 2004, Lancaster told BBC reporter Mr 
Ansell: 'You have told me you have done it. But when we have finished 
this off-the-record chat you cannot tell anyone else you have done it.

'Once you tell a solicitor you have done it you cannot run a defence 
if you haven't.'

He said Mr Ansell could say he was 'horrified' that he had been 
offered a cocaine wrap and handed it back, which could explain his 
prints on it.

During his trial Lancaster claimed he hadn't intended to pervert the 
course of justice, but the jury didn't believe him.

A spokesman for the Law Society said Lancaster could now be struck off.

Detective Inspector Adam Price from Hampshire Constabulary's Serious 
and Organised Crime Unit said: 'His criminal acts were designed to 
frustrate the prosecution of a person posing as a drug dealer, who 
had worked with vulnerable children.

'This conviction should send out a message to all defence lawyers 
that they need to ensure that they comply at all times with their 
responsibilities legally and morally.'
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