AN advocate who made a series of ''premeditated'' nuisance phone calls to the former lover of Donald Findlay, QC, has escaped a fine after a professional disciplinary investigation.

Victoria Young, 30, was censured by Colin Campbell, the dean of the Faculty of Advocates, for making pest calls to Paddy Christie, the television journalist, who had then been in a relationship with Mr Findlay for around five years.

The distressing calls, which were made between January 1999 and July 2000, led Ms Christie to believe she had a Jill Dando-style stalker, and she contacted the police who arranged a trace on her phone.

Ms Christie said that within 14 days she had taken a call which was traced to Ms Young's mobile phone.

The advocate, who lives in Glasgow, was interviewed by police and admitted the calls, some of which are believed to have been made late at night.

Ms Christie said in one interview at the time that she distinctly heard heavy breathing on the other end of the phone.

''It took a few weeks to realise the calls were not wrong numbers and that someone was stalking me by phone,'' she said at the time.

The scandal was said to have played a part in the disintegration of Mr Findlay and Ms Christie's relationship. The couple originally met more than 20 years ago while she was a crime reporter.

Ms Young, who had worked under instruction with Mr Findlay on a number of high profile cases, was originally charged with a contravention of the Telecommunications Act. A report was sent to the procurator-fiscal, who decided the matter would be dealt with by way of a ''non-court disposal''.

An investigating committee set up by the faculty carried out an inquiry which firmly established Ms Young had made seven nuisance calls to Ms Christie and had attempted unsuccessfully to make another.

The inquiry also found that while Ms Young's calls were not of an obscene nature they caused inconvenience and needless anxiety to Ms Christie.

In a statement, the faculty said: ''While the calls were made outside of Ms Young's professional practice as an advocate, the dean found her behaviour to be a matter of serious misconduct and contrary to the professional obligation of someone holding the public office of advocate.

''Advocates are expected to avoid both professional and personal behaviour which threatens the trust and confidence which members of the public ought to be able to have in a member of the bar.

''In the dean's view harassing someone by nuisance telephone calls certainly falls into this category, and thus he has upheld the complaint.''

The statement added: ''In considering disposal he (the dean) has noted that this was a premeditated course of conduct and over a lengthy period of time, and that it has been particularly upsetting for the complainer.''

He also noted that Ms Young acknowledged her wrongdoing and made a written apology to Ms Christie, and that the prosecuting authority did not consider criminal proceedings appropriate. Mr Campbell issued a ''severe written censure'' to Ms Young.

The statement also made it clear that Ms Young did not challenge the findings of the faculty's investigation committee.

Where a complaint is dealt with solely by the dean the maximum penalty is a fine of (pounds) 5000.

Ms Christie, a former Scotland Today reporter with Scottish TV, was not available for comment last night. Both Ms Young and Mr Findlay declined to make any comment.