No mad rush for de-rolling former AGS lawyer who diddled a trust fund … Offence in 2009 … Caught in 2014 … Pleaded guilty in 2016 … Out of the nick by 2018 … Struck off in 2020 … Wife “horrified” by husband’s offending … Janek Drevikovsky reports
The offence dates back to 2008, when Mehrdad Jafari was a senior lawyer busy with sober matters of state at the Australian Government Solicitor. One of his duties was to organise compensation for a former Defence employee, who had been permanently taken out of action in a training accident.
To this end, Jafari and another solicitor set up a trust account, which they loaded with $3.5 million. Any disbursement had to be authorised by both solicitors.
But Jafari was addicted to gambling and had taken on a huge amount of debt. From a childhood friend, described in the judgment as “Ms M”, he borrowed over $200,000, promising he would use it to make sensible investments. Soon the whole sum was frittered away on bets.
Unexpectedly, Ms M called in the loan and in a panic, Jafari turned to the AGS trust fund. He forged his colleague’s signature to authorise a $220,000 cheque, payable to Ms M.
And there the matter lay. For six years, Mr Jafari breathed not a word about his misfeasance. Then, in 2014, a fellow solicitor spotted Ms M’s unfamiliar name on the books.
When challenged to explain the payment, Jafari twice denied knowing anything about Ms M. Soon, the truth was extracted and Jafari was charged with dishonestly appropriating Commonwealth property.
In 2016, he pleaded guilty before acting District Court judge Rod Madgwick, who sentenced him to a two-year long intensive corrections order – basically a good behaviour bond plus police check-ins and community service.
On appeal, the sentence was found manifestly inadequate, and the offender was ordered to serve three years porridge, emerging on parole in 2018.
It seems in 2017, in civil proceedings which had been commenced by the AFP, Jafari paid $300,000 to finalise the matter.
At long last, the Law Society moved for their man to be struck off. The unopposed application was brought in the inherent jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, where an appeal bench was assembled to deliver the spanking.
The dishonesty was serious. Jafari concealed his offending for over six years, piling on more lies when he said he did not recognise Ms M’s name in the trust records.
“As such, whilst there was only one offence charged, Mr Jafari’s initial and grave dishonesty was compounded by his ongoing concealment of his crime and his dishonest responses when ultimately confronted with it in 2014.”
Apparently, this degree of dishonesty would prevent Jafari’s professional peers from reposing trust in him if he were allowed back into the trade.
An affidavit from Jafari’s wife, also a lawyer, laid it on:
“I am horrified by my husband’s offending. It was a deliberate and serious abuse of the trust placed in him as a solicitor and as an employee of the Commonwealth. He has called the legal profession, the AGS and the Commonwealth into disrepute. He has stolen a very significant sum of public money and kept that hidden for years. He has also lied to me and abused my trust.”
The High Court found in Cummins that honesty and integrity are the sine qua non of plying the lawyering trade. So Jafari, was not fit and proper and had his name removed from the jam roll.