SOLICITORS ATTACK POLICE BUGGING

Lawyers have expressed concern over the bugging of solicitor-client conversations and suggested that it may be more widespread than at first envisaged.A murder trial in Nottingham was halted last week after it came to light that police had illegally bugged conversations between the defendants and their lawyers.

Under the Investigative Powers Act 2000, police may bug cells and prisons if they believe they might glean relevant information, but the taping of conversations between a lawyer and client is prohibited.Chris Milligan, senior partner at Grantham firm Bird & Co, represented two of the five defendants and was one of the solicitors bugged.

'I've always had concerns that the police may be bugging interview rooms, but never previously had the evidence,' he said.

'It's a frustrating situation for my clients now, as we can't clear their names.'Mr Milligan said his suspicions had previously been aroused by officers making comments on facts they should not have known and 'always being ushered into the same interview room at police stations'.

Franklin Sinclair, senior partner at leading criminal law firm Tuckers and former chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said: 'In the past I've had clients accuse me of informing on them after a police officer has shown knowledge on confidential matters.

If defendants stop having confidence in us as lawyers then they'll stop telling us anything, or worse, start telling us lies.'He said in most meetings at stations now, defendants believe they have to relay all facts in whispers.Graham White, chairman of the Law Society's criminal law committee, said the practice of bugging such meetings was 'unacceptable' and a 'disturbing trend'.He said: 'It is gratifying in this case that the court decided evidence obtained in this manner is inadmissible.

Hopefully this will send a strong message to the police.'Andrew Towler