Two employees of a law firm have been removed from the profession after being jailed for drug offences.
Alexandra Ditcham and Jordan Heeley, non-solicitors who worked for conveyancing specialist O’Neill Patient Solicitors, were both subject to Solicitors Regulation Authority orders barring them from working at regulated practices.
Both were working as case managers in the conveyancing remortgage department at the Stockport-based firm when the police carried out a search of Heeley’s property in 2021. Ditcham was present at the address at the time of the search. Heeley was found by a kitchen worktop with empty snap bags and a digital scale. A police investigation concluded that both Heeley and Ditcham had supplied or arranged to supply drugs for profit.
Both pleaded guilty at Crewe Magistrates’ Court in March 2023. Ditcham was convicted of involvement in the supply of cocaine; Heeley was convicted of the same charge, as well as the charge of concealing, disguising, converting, transferring or removing criminal property. Both defendants were sentenced at Chester Crown Court to 28 months’ imprisonment.
It was reported by the Manchester Evening News at the time of their convictions that they sold cocaine to friends at social gatherings and made £13,000 profit in 10 weeks.
Ditcham and Heeley were both found to have breached two SRA principles and were disqualified from being employed by any licensed firm. Each was ordered to pay the SRA’s £600 costs.
