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Sole practitioner struck off for taking $100k in trust money
A sole practitioner who stole more than $100,000 in trust funds and billed for work he never did has been struck off the roll.
Naomi Neilson
The West Australian Supreme Court removed Howard John Ginbey’s name from the roll of practitioners after the State Administrative Tribunal found he engaged in professional misconduct in respect of three separate clients.
For approximately two years, Ginbey stole over $100,000 meant to be held in trust. At the time of each offence, Ginbey did not operate a trust account, and the money was deposited into an account in debit.
It took several more years for the money to be returned.
“Ginbey’s conduct, as recorded in the report from the tribunal, fell well short of the conduct expected of legal practitioners on repeated occasions over a period of years,” Justices Joseph McGrath, Amanda Forrester and Gary Cobby said in their written reasons.
“Honesty and integrity are essential characteristics required of legal practitioners, particularly where practitioners are dealing with moneys entrusted to them by their clients.”
In August 2014, Ginbey received $37,704.14 and failed to pay this money, as instructed, to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Ginbey then failed to return the sum to the public trustee after it revoked the instructions and demanded repayment until March 2018.
In relation to that same client, Ginbey invoiced and accepted payment in the sum of $2,021 for the costs of preparing and lodging two survivorship applications, which he never did.
In the second client’s matter, Ginbey received $4,360 into an overdraft account, failed to account to the clients for that sum, failed to deliver legal services diligently, and failed to respond to communications from the Legal Profession Complaints Committee.
As for the third, Ginbey misappropriated $83,741.22 from the estate he was appointed executor over and either withdrew or spent it.
He then failed to account to the beneficiaries until around January 2021, despite orders made by the Supreme Court of Western Australia in December 2018 and February 2019 for the money to be returned.
Alternatively, the Legal Services and Complaints Committee argued that in circumstances where he had not been aware of the orders, Ginbey failed to check correspondence sent to his law firm’s address or to update his address if there had been a change.
On the last instance of misconduct, Justices McGrath, Forrester and Cobby said he “egregiously abused” his position as executor.
In each case, Ginbey was found to have only returned the funds when it was “persistently demanded”.
“Ginbey’s conduct, in seriously breaching his obligations to deal with trust money honestly and not for his own benefit, retaining amounts in respect of work that he did not carry out, and failing to deal candidly with the LPCC regarding his conduct, demonstrated a lack of integrity inconsistent with his being a fit and proper person to remain a legal practitioner,” the Supreme Court bench said.
The case is Legal Services and Complaints Committee v Ginbey [2025] WASC 42 (13 February 2025).
Naomi Neilson
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
You can email Naomi at:
