SOLICITORS were alerted to the risk of “inadvertently” committing a criminal offence by calling clients in prison who are using illegal mobile phones.

The Law Society issued a note to its members warning they could be taking part in criminal activity by ringing the prohibited phones.

According to the guidance, some lawyers may call inmates “without realising the call is being made to an illicitly possessed telephone”.

Illegal mobile phones in prisons have been used to enable drug deals and even organise a murder.

A gang member in Liverpool was killed in a hit organised by an inmate using an illicit mobile phone.

Liam Smith was shot dead outside Merseyside’s Altcourse Prison on August 23, 2006. He was spotted visiting a friend in the prison by rival gang member, inmate Ryan Lloyd, who used a hidden mobile phone to arrange the hit. Lloyd was later jailed for life, with a minimum 28-year term, for ordering the killing of Liam Smith.

The Law Society note reads: “There is a danger that by making a call to a prisoner’s unlawfully possessed mobile telephone you may be, either deliberately or inadvertently, committing a criminal offence.”

The Society said the illicit possession and use of mobile telephones in prisons was becoming an increasing issue, and warned solicitors not to call inmates on mobile phone numbers and to terminate any incoming calls from prisoners using mobiles.

It said: “You should inform the caller that they are committing an offence and that you and your staff will not accept calls in such circumstances.”

Mark Leech, editor of Converse, the national prisoner’s newspaper, and a former inmate of HMP Liverpool, said mobiles in prisons were worth £2,500 to £5,000 each month to convicts, who charge other inmates to use them. He said that prison officers are paid between £1,000 and £1,500 for smuggling a mobile into prison.

Mr Leech added: “The penny does not seem to have dropped that prisoners are using illegal phones to call their solicitors. Following legislation in 2010, the possession of a mobile phone in prison is now a criminal offence – but that hasn’t stopped over 4,000 being found in the last year.”

A Prison Service spokesman said: “It is a criminal offence to have a mobile phone in prison and we work hard to keep them out.

“We use a range of security and intelligence measures, including body orifice scanning, mobile phone signal detectors and robust searches with specially trained dogs.”