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RNZ News
3 days ago
- Health
- RNZ News
Lawyer struck off after taking $200k of client funds to escape abusive relationship
By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice reporter of The woman said she lived in constant fear of her husband. Photo: 123RF A lawyer who says she feared for her life at the hands of an abusive husband took at least $200,000 from her clients, partly to escape the relationship. "I understand how on the face this looks like a simple story of a lawyer who misused client funds," she told a disciplinary tribunal today, "but, this is a story of a long shadow of domestic violence". The woman, who has name suppression, said she and her children were in a state of survival for seven years. She said they lived in constant fear of her husband and often had to barricade themselves in a bedroom so he wouldn't hurt them. "The term survival mode does not do justice to the psychological toll," she said. "I genuinely believe we would have ended up as a news headline for a murder suicide." Despite the abuse, the woman continued to operate a successful legal practice, but began dipping into her firm's trust account so she could move cities to escape her husband. Today, the woman told the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal that taking money from the account, which is used to hold client funds, began as an error. But, she then started taking more in the belief she could repay it. The woman told the tribunal that she accepted she would be struck off for taking the money, some of which she has already repaid, and realises now that she should have shut her firm down when she couldn't cope. "But I loved being a lawyer. "In all the darkness, it was the one thing I was holding onto that made me feel like me." She knew it was wrong Milan Djurich, counsel for the Standards Committee laying charges against the woman on behalf of the New Zealand Law Society, told the tribunal that the woman knew what she was doing was wrong. "It was a high level of theft and a breach of professional standards," he said. According to the charges against the woman, it was one of her clients who contacted the Law Society in 2023, concerned about the lack of contact from the woman after they'd paid a significant deposit. Investigators estimated that there was a shortfall of at least $200,000 in the trust account before taking control of it in December 2023. It was found the woman transferred money out of the trust account and spent it on things like insurance, gym fees, relocation costs, school fees and books and payments on a deposit for a property she'd purchased. There were also several large transfers into her personal accounts, but it's unclear exactly what that money was spent on. The woman's lawyer, Stewart Sluis, said his client didn't have access to the trust account any longer as the Law Society took it over, and she now couldn't determine exactly how much she took, but the Standards Committee accepted that the shortfall was at least $203,000. The woman, who handed in her practising certificate voluntarily, accepted she would be struck from the roll of barristers and solicitors. The woman has recently won a relationship property settlement in the Family Court against her ex-husband. She now plans to use the proceeds to pay the rest of the money she took from her clients. While the woman was granted name suppression, she asked the tribunal to include the context of why she took the money in its written decision. Because the Family Court is strictly suppressed, if she had lost name suppression, the wider context about her husband could not have been referenced by the tribunal, nor reported by NZME. "This is my attempt to tell my side of the story, one shaped by domestic violence and a mental state shattered by fear," she said. "I hope that sharing this story may help other women in the future." The tribunal ordered that the woman be struck off and that she pay legal costs as well as repay the money that was taken from her clients. * This story originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald . If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.
RNZ News
07-05-2025
- RNZ News
Auckland lawyer Nicholas Wintour used neighbour's criminal history to try to get him evicted
By Jeremy Wilkinson, Open Justice reporter of Photo: 123RF A lawyer abused his position to gain access to his neighbour's criminal history and then used it against the man to try to get him evicted over a driveway access dispute. Auckland criminal defence lawyer Nicholas Wintour has had name suppression for the past few months as the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal dealt with the proven misconduct charges against him. But, on Wednesday that order lapsed as the tribunal opted to suspend him from practice. "You abused your position to obtain private, lawfully protected information about a neighbouring member of the public and you chose to use that material as part of a campaign to have him and his family evicted," said the tribunal in a ruling. "That misconduct brings concern and disapproval from the community and, indeed, from other lawyers who operate in accordance with lawful restraints. Your breach of lawful rules is grievous." NZME has attended all of Wintour's hearings before the tribunal and according to the summary of facts, he has changed his story about how he accessed the information. In one version of events, Wintour claimed that police disclosed his neighbour's conviction history to him when two officers showed up at his door after a complaint he made about the man, with whom he shared a driveway. Wintour later claimed a friend at the court had given him the information, though that friend has since died. The lawyer went on to present the conviction history at a mediation meeting with his and the neighbour's property manager. The neighbour could not attend the meeting but his wife was there and told the tribunal during evidence that it was "entirely inappropriate" and "the most traumatic time of my life". The tribunal found it was most likely Wintour had obtained the conviction history from a probation officer at the Auckland District Court, and that the man's file had been accessed from the officer's login the day before the mediation meeting. NZME understands Corrections investigated the incident. The tribunal found last month that Wintour had deliberately lied to the Law Society about where he'd gotten the information, to draw attention from the real source and "maintained that lie continuously for almost seven years". "We find he has advanced deliberate falsehoods to cover his wrongdoing," the tribunal said. Wintour, who did not want to comment on the tribunal's most-recent ruling, has maintained he got the information from the police and then from his friend at the court. "In the context of being very fearful of [the neighbour] and having very real beliefs that my family and I may not be safe, I discussed the situation with a close friend who made inquiries as to [the neighbour's] history," he told the tribunal. "At the time I was very worried about my own physical safety and safety of my family and this was a lapse of judgment." In its ruling, which was released on Wednesday, the tribunal did not mince its words about the seriousness of Wintour's conduct. "Misusing his advantage as a lawyer, he unlawfully obtained his neighbour's criminal record and tried to have his neighbour evicted. "He fabricated false versions of how he came by the information, attempting to mislead the Standards Committee and the Tribunal. As part of that strategy, he swore false affidavits." The tribunal said Wintour, as a criminal defence lawyer, ought to have understood how sensitive the information he accessed, and then disclosed, was. The neighbour's conviction history was more than 25 years old and none of it was for violence or drug use, or anything that would justify Wintour's claim he was trying to protect his family. "We find that the misconduct constituted an inexcusable abuse of his position as a lawyer. Lawyers should uphold the law," the tribunal said. "This was a calculated, brazen act showing disregard for an important structure designed to protect privacy interests." Despite its sharp words about Wintour's conduct, the tribunal stopped short of striking him from the roll of barristers and solicitors, in part because it was unlikely he would repeat the behaviour. "Where his own interests are concerned, he has been discovered to be devious. But we do not find he has sunk to a level where we can say he should not be trusted to practise as a lawyer." Wintour wrote a letter to the tribunal in late April to apologise for his conduct. "I knew immediately at the time that what I did was not acceptable in my capacity as a lawyer and a professional. I can only attempt to explain my conduct as an aberration and serious error which was well outside my usual character and behaviour and the way I conduct myself," he said. Wintour said he was deeply disappointed in himself for misleading the Law Society. "All aspects of my conduct in this case have not only let down myself. They have also let down the legal profession as a whole." Wintour was suspended for a total of nine months beginning in July and ordered to pay legal costs of $76,000 and a fine of $5000. This story was first published by the New Zealand Herald .
