William Mastop, 46, pleaded guilty to the offence in December after a judge admitted into evidence wiretaps that proved he had helped the gang, reports The Province.

'Slow drift'

The case – a first of its kind in Canada – came to a close with BC Supreme Court Justice Mark McEwan stating that Mastop’s ‘slow drift’ towards abusing his position as a lawyer was ‘reprehensible’.
However, the judge also quoted from several letters of support from lawyers for Mastop, leading him to decide that a short term of incarceration was a sufficient punishment.

Police informants

Among the claims against Mastop was that he obtained a document in 2005 related to the police search of the home of John Thom, a drug dealer associated with the gang. He then handed over the information-to-obtain (ITO) for the search warrant – which included information about a police informant, and the existence of police informants - to gang leader Peter Manolakos.
According to the report, the Greek gang mistakenly believed Mr Thom’s brother, Ron Thom, was an informant, and within two weeks of the document being handed over Ron Thom was fatally shot by the gang.
The Crown claimed that Mastop’s actions set off a ‘chain of events’ which led to the death of Ron Thom and also Belinda Scott, Mr Thom’s girlfriend whose murder the gang is also suspected of being involved in, although no charges have been laid.