Ex-lawyer Amanda Lothian jailed for supplying ketamine from £600,000 home

Aberdeen lawyer Amanda Lothian, 65, was convicted in April of being concerned in the supply of the Class B drug from her property at Lower Kennerty Mill in Peterculter during the pandemic.

She was sentenced at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday after a jury took less than an hour to return a unanimous verdict of guilty. Sheriff William Summers told her: “This is a very serious charge.”

Lothian represented herself during the hearing. She said she accepted her involvement in the supply chain but denied ownership of the drugs. “I’m accepting that I had some part in the chain of supply, but I’m not accepting that the drugs are mine,” she told the court.

Police had raided her home and a black Volvo registered to her on 28 August 2020 following a period of surveillance. Officers recovered two vacuum-packed bags of ketamine worth £71,620, as well as nearly £4,000 in cash. A further £15,000 worth of ketamine was found in the possession of James Hanlon, who claimed to have collected the drugs from Lothian’s home.

During the trial, Lothian claimed she was unaware of the drugs in her house and alleged she had been the victim of cuckooing by Hanlon. She told the court she had “absolutely no idea what was going on inside that house.” When asked why her DNA was found on a bag containing ketamine, she said she believed it contained a muscle-building supplement.

She also told the court she suffers from a serious degenerative lung condition and is undergoing an experimental drug trial in London involving regular injections.

Sheriff Summers said he had considered her health, age and the fact the conviction related to a single day. “With all that notwithstanding, this is a very serious charge,” he said. “In my opinion, the only appropriate disposal in your case is the imposition of a custodial sentence.”

He jailed her for 18 months.