City lawyer suspended over cocaine caution

A FORMER lawyer at a “Magic Circle” firm has been suspended after his company received an anonymous tip-off about a caution for cocaine possession.

Matthew Podger was arrested by police after being found with three wraps of the Class A drug outside his home.

The solicitor accepted a caution – as he had when caught with the same drug four years previously – but failed to tell his bosses because he was afraid it would ruin his career and marriage.

He was found out when an anonymous letter was sent to the HR department of global law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton where he worked, tipping them off.

A disciplinary hearing has found him guilty of misconduct and barred him from the profession for a year.