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Prison for legal clerk in bid to smuggle drugs to jailed dealer
A LEGAL clerk who tried to smuggle drugs and a mobile phone into a Yorkshire jail has been sent to prison for 15 months.
Kylie Anderton was caught by prison officers at Wealstun, near Wetherby, as she tried to hand the items to a convicted drug dealer who was a client of her legal firm.
She was jailed yesterday by a judge at Leeds Crown Court after earlier pleading guilty to three counts of conveying prohibited articles into prison.
The court heard she had no previous convictions and that her promising legal career was over.
Anderton, 23, of The Mallards, Silsden, near Keighley, later told police she had been pressurised by drug dealer Tasheen Kazmi, who had used charm and threats.
She said Kazmi's friends had turned up at her flat and she had also received phone calls from his associates on her personal mobile phone which was apparently publicly advertised as a 24-hour number for clients – a practice the judge criticised as "outrageous".
Tom Storey, prosecuting, told the court Anderton was caught on March 31 this year during a prison visit in her capacity as a trainee legal representative with Javid Arshad Solicitors, based in Bradford.
Prison officers found a mobile phone and a package containing Subutex, a substance similar to heroin, and 162 tablets thought to be anti-depressants.
During police interviews Anderton said Kazmi had persistently asked her to bring items into the jail and in February she began to receive threats from his friends who appeared to know her address, what car she drove and where she worked, said Mr Storey.
Anderton said she was visited at home by a man who put his foot inside the door so she could not close it. He told her to book a prison visit to Kazmi and that if she didn't obey "she knew that they knew where she lived", the prosecutor added.
She had received two or three phone calls from a man who said he was a friend of Kazmi and told her to go to the Odeon cinema car park in Bradford. She later met a man at the Odeon and was handed a package.
"She had not reported it to the police because she was told if she did Kazmi's friend would find out," Mr Storey told the court. "The clear implication is that some harm might come."
James Hill QC, mitigating, said Anderton had displayed a "rather naive attitude that customers are always right".
"She didn't call for help at an early stage because she wanted to show that she could deal with it. She didn't want to involve her family in the murky side of this."
Mr Hill said his client did not believe the police would protect her or take her seriously.
"She simply went through with it. To her eternal shame what she did was entirely wrong. She should have sought help."
Mr Hill said Anderton's actions had ruined what could have been a long career in the law.
The Recorder of Leeds, Judge Peter Collier QC, said anyone who smuggled drugs or phones into a prison would, without exception, be sent to jail.
The judge said questions ought to be asked about the level of training and supervision of legal clerks whose job brought them into contact with criminals.
And he said it was wrong that Anderton's personal mobile phone was apparently advertised as a 24-hour legal helpline.
"These sort of practices must stop," he said.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Thursday 09 February 2012
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