Lawyer faces prison after ‘huge’ drugs cache found

Police have issued an appeal for 61-year-old Maurice Cameron. Picture: TSPL

Gerard Nesbitt was sitting in his underpants when police raided his home in Glasgow’s southside in May last year.

Drugs were discovered around the flat including under a bed and in a filing cabinet.

The 53-year-old solicitor bizarrely pinned the blame on a homeless man he claimed had keys to the property. But prosecutors ridiculed his story, claiming he must be the “unluckiest man” for that to be true.

Nesbitt’s career now lies in ruins after he was convicted of being concerned in the supply of cannabis. It emerged he had a previous drugs offence dating to the mid-1980s.

Co-accused Iain McKenzie, 38, was also found guilty of the charge after the trial at the High Court in Glasgow. The pair were remanded in custody and will be sentenced later this month.

The Glasgow employment lawyer and his accomplice were caught during a probe by the former Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency (SCDEA).

Supermarket worker McKenzie was spotted visiting Nesbitt’s tenement block in Battlefield, Glasgow, carrying a bag.

Police later raided Nesbitt’s flat just before he and his partner were going to their bed on 24 May last year. A large quantity of cannabis was discovered under a bunk bed, in a filing cabinet and a kitchen cupboard.

The court heard a total of 31kg of the drug was found between two properties, with a potential value of £155,000.

Former CID officer Kenneth Simpson, a drug expert, told the jury it was a “huge amount” of cannabis.

Nesbitt, now of Newlands, Glasgow, denied involvement and claimed his “legs went” when police uncovered drugs.

The solicitor told the jury a homeless man – who he did not know – had been using his flat in the weeks before the raid as a “favour” to a friend.

In a special defence, Nesbitt incriminated this individual.

Prosecutors said Nesbitt “invented” claims this man had been staying there.

Advocate depute James MacDonald put to Nesbitt: “Do you not understand how ridiculous your position is?

“How ridiculous for a qualified lawyer to say: ‘I let in a homeless man, gave him the keys and, while in it, if there was anything put in the house, it was him, not me.’”

Nesbitt said: “My position is exactly what I have said.”

Mr MacDonald said the Strathclyde University graduate’s claims would make him the “unluckiest man in Glasgow”.

Nesbitt also insisted the first time he met McKenzie, of the city’s Carntyne, was when they initially appeared in court  together at the beginning of this year.

Judge Lord Burns deferred sentencing until later this month for reports.