TV 'sting' solicitor struck off

Lancaster was jailed for three years after a trial in October

A solicitor filmed in a TV "sting" giving advice to an undercover journalist on how to stop witnesses testifying has been struck off.

David Lancaster, 57, from Havant, Hampshire, was taken off the solicitors' roll at a Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal on Thursday.

Lancaster was jailed for three years in October for inciting the reporter to pervert the course of justice.

He was filmed by BBC South's Inside Out programme giving the advice.

'Breathtaking display'

A reporter for the show staged an advice session with Lancaster, claiming to have been arrested by police after being named as a cocaine supplier by a friend.

The former Warner, Goodman and Streat employee gave the journalist false explanations to use when he returned to answer police bail.

At Lancaster's trial at Exeter Crown Court, Judge Graham Cottle said the solicitor had given "a breathtaking display of unprofessional conduct".

In December 2004, at the time of the offence, Lancaster was an equity partner for Warner Goodman and Streat in Portsmouth, but had also been a magistrate for four years.

A spokeswoman for the Solicitors' Regulation Authority said Lancaster had been struck off permanently but could reapply to join the roll in the future.