Former DPP solicitor Lisa Munro: 'Through these actions she destroyed her own dream.' According to facts tendered in court, the 33-year-old jumped back into the taxi and travelled around the corner, before getting out in front of a Woolworths supermarket. It was there the officers who had been watching her moves intervened. Police found a small resealable plastic bag in her clenched fist with 0.65 grams of cocaine inside. They noticed she had white residue on the corners of her mouth and appeared nervous.

A few days later she resigned from her "dream job" at the ODPP and, last month, pleaded guilty to one count of drug possession. The Lane Cove resident was sentenced in the Downing Centre Local Court on Monday but avoided a conviction and jail time. Munro, who was of prior good character, was placed on a 12-month good behaviour bond. Court documents state that, before an officer searched Munro in Potts Point in July, she paced around and repeatedly put her hands in her jacket pockets. "As police were escorting the accused, she quickly put her left hand in her left jacket pocket and removed it in a clenched fist," the facts state.

The police grabbed her hand and found a little bag with white powder inside. Court documents state that police had stopped Munro because they believed a drug transaction had taken place as she had spent such a short time in the parked car. The court heard Munro had a history of underlying issues and had failed to continue with treatment earlier this year. She had also disengaged from psychologists. Munro's barrister Matthew Johnston SC said his client had realised her behaviour was out of control and things needed to be done.

She has since re-engaged with her treatment. But her brush with the law has not come without cost. "Through these actions she destroyed her own dream," Mr Johnston said. He said Munro, who worked at private firms before her ascension to the ODPP, was a young woman who had spent much of her life working towards her career dream. The consequences of her actions had been "extreme publicity", which had also impacted on her friends and family, the court heard. While the public humiliation had been "enormous", Magistrate Greg Grogin said a "loud and clear" message that drug use or possession was not an acceptable way of living had to be ensured.

He said that, as a 33-year-old, Munro found herself in a situation that many young people did — binge drinking, going out on a Friday and Saturday night and "things evolve from there". "There needs to be a message sent out to members of the public that alcohol and drugs is not the answer to anything," he said. After considering the matter at great length, Mr Grogin said Munro was to be punished as a member of the community, not because she was a solicitor caught with drugs. Referees spoke highly of Munro and Mr Grogin described her as an intelligent young woman of prior good character.