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A man who spent more than three years in prison for cocaine trafficking, a woman with at least 38 fraud convictions and a teacher who lost his licence after pleading guilty to criminal harassment involving a 15-year-old student – they’re all lawyers in Ontario.

The Law Society of Upper Canada has granted legal licences to at least five people with criminal histories in the last five years.

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Fraud, theft of money, theft of credit cards and altering or forging documents – Kathryn Smithen has at least 38 convictions over 14 years, until 1993, when she was finally jailed for 18 months.

She stole from employers and was fired for cause five times. She paid the first and last month’s rent and then simply stayed until she was evicted. When she applied for her legal licence, she had two civil judgments against her for fraud and several judgments outstanding. She had also declared bankruptcy twice.

When she disclosed her checkered past on her application to the law society, it triggered an investigation, which revealed more problems, some as recent as 2005. She had made misrepresentations to Immigration Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, a court and on a rental application. She had also posed as a landlord to get credit information on her ex-husband and his wife to use in court against her former spouse. And she had worked as an escort on and off for nine years.