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Jailed SA magistrate who conspired with solicitor struck from roll
A former South Australian magistrate was removed from the roll of practitioners four years after he served at least 12 months behind bars for conspiring with a solicitor and former partner.
Naomi Neilson
Adelaide Magistrates Court. Source: Google Maps.
The Supreme Court of South Australia removed Robert Bruce Harrap’s name from the roll of practitioners on Friday (26 July), four years after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and two counts of deception concerning traffic infringements.
Acting Justice Mark Livesey, Justice Chris Bleby, and Justice Sophie David said when the offending is viewed as a whole, “the absence of personal integrity and disregard for the law are striking”.
“No sanction short of a strike-off would be appropriate,” they said.
Following a decades-long criminal law career, Harrap was the regional manager of the Elizabeth Magistrates Court and held supervisory positions in charge of the criminal divisions at the Magistrates Court of Adelaide, Berry and Christies Beach.
In May 2020, the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) intercepted a telephone conversation between Harrap and his former domestic partner and solicitor, Catherine Jayne Moyse, as they discussed an administrative appeal concerning a client’s licence.
The procedure for listing the matter in his courtroom was discussed, and Harrap was heard telling Moyse he would “grant the application after giving a stern lecture” to the client about his driving offences.
Harrap added that if the matter was not heard by him, “he would influence his colleague, another magistrate, to grant the application”.
The deception charges occurred after Harrap received two traffic infringements for speeding while in a car allocated to him by the Courts Administration Authority as part of his remuneration.
Due to a fear of losing his licence, Harrap asked his partner and a police sergeant to be nominated for one of the offences and asked his clerk to take accountability for the second.
Despite pleading guilty in 2020, the matter appeared before the Court of Appeal where Harrap was resentenced to an imprisonment term of 21 months with a non-parole period of 12 months, both backdated to when he was first taken into custody.
Harrap has served that sentence.
When handing down Harrap’s sentence, the Court of Appeal’s chief justice said it was “difficult to conceive of an abuse of a judicial officer more serious in the nature of its commission”.
According to sentencing remarks on ICAC’s website, Moyse avoided a conviction and received a $1,000 fine that was discounted to $600.
Justices Livesey, Bleby, and David said the criminal wrongdoing “represented very stark and serious failures to adhere to the standards the community reasonable expects of legal practitioners”.
Given his name remaining on the roll suggested the Supreme Court holds him out as fit to practise law, the bench said there was no other option but to strike Harrap’s name off.
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
