A SOLICITOR who was sent to prison for attempting to pervert the course of justice has been officially struck off.

Basharat Ditta, who had worked for Forbes Solicitors in Blackburn, was convicted of the charge in November, 2013, when he was sentenced to three years in prison.

A court heard how he had a cocaine addition and passed top secret police information to drugs dealers, leaving him in a ‘hopelessly compromised’ position.

He faced a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, which found that he had broken the basic rules of being a lawyer.

A spokesman for the body said: “The convictions were evidence that Mr Ditta had breached three professional principles, in that he failed to uphold the rule of law and proper administration of justice, failed to act with integrity and failed to act in a way that maintained the trust the public placed in him and the provision of legal services.”

Ditta, formerly of Adelaide Terrace, is appealing his convictions and, if quashed, he can apply for the striking off order to be set aside and the matter to be heard again by the SDT. Any such application must be made within three months of his convictions being quashed.

Ditta has 21 days from the receipt of the tribunal’s written judgment to appeal.

During his trial, Liverpool Crown Court heard how the defendant would try to gather information from the police for his dealer Neil Scarborough and his associates Tahier Chand and Suhail Vohra about arrests of their couriers so they could avoid being caught themselves.

Ditta acted as the solicitor for Scarborough throughout the period of the two charges of perverting the course of justice.

In a prosecution brought by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, the tribunal also ordered him to pay costs of £5,200.

The SRA is the regulator of more than 130,000 practising solicitors in England and Wales, ensuring the professional standards laid out in the Code of Conduct are adhered to.

In more severe cases of alleged misconduct, the authority can prosecute cases at the independent SDT, which is a recognised court of England and Wales. Allegations must be proven to the criminal standard.

Siobhan Hardy, senior partner at Forbes, said: “We can confirm that following an internal investigation Mr Ditta left the firm in July, 2012.”