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Sole practitioner convicted of aggravated fraud struck off roll
A Queensland solicitor has been removed from the roll of practitioners for disbursing trust monies without authority and for being convicted for a serious offence.
Jerome Doraisamy
The Queensland Legal Services Commissioner applied, in the state’s Civil and Administrative Tribunal, for the removal of Melvin Poh Onn Tay from the roll, particularising seven occasions of misuse of trust monies by Mr Tay and pointing to his plea of guilty before the District Court of one count of aggravated fraud in March 2018.
The tribunal noted that Mr Tay had “dishonestly applied monies which had been deposited into his trust account on seven different occasions”, with the total amount of money misapplied adding to $93,000.
This money was paid back prior to the conduct being detected, however there was “no doubt that he dishonestly availed himself” of client money, the tribunal mused.
When Mr Tay’s conduct was discovered, following a trust account investigation, his practising certificate was cancelled in January 2014, and he had not held such a certificate since.
The tribunal said that his “financial distress arose, in no small part, from his gambling habits. At least some of the instances of trust account defalcation arose as a consequence of the respondent having recourse to trust moneys for the purposes of funding his gambling habit”.
“In any event, [he] has accepted all of the facts underlying the charges and has accepted the inevitable outcome of his having committed these grave breaches of trust.”
It was clear “beyond doubt” that he had engaged in professional misconduct, the tribunal determined.
“Nothing has been put before the tribunal to persuade the tribunal in any way that the respondent is now, or at any time in the future, will be a person who will be fit to practice law as a member of the profession.”
As such, it was ordered that Mr Tay’s name be removed from the roll of practitioners in Queensland, and that he pay the LSC’s costs.
Jerome Doraisamy
Jerome Doraisamy is the editor of Lawyers Weekly and HR Leader. He has worked at Momentum Media as a journalist on Lawyers Weekly since February 2018, and has served as editor since March 2022. In June 2024, he also assumed the editorship of HR Leader. Jerome is also the author of The Wellness Doctrines book series, an admitted solicitor in NSW, and a board director of the Minds Count Foundation.
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