Telling pork pies to clients, the court, the Law Society and others … It all came to a head when the solicitor was convicted of diddling a client’s mother and the Legal Aid Commission … Sophie Taylor on the case 

Stubbs’ rap sheet of unprofessional conduct includes: 

• falsely representing that he was in a personal relationship with a client that pre-dated their retainer;
• misrepresenting that the same client was a pro-bono client, when in fact the matter had been funded by legal aid; 
• consenting to the Supreme Court setting aside a restraining order without the client’s consent; 
• misrepresenting that this client had consented to the order being set aside; 
• attempting to intimidate a witness from giving evidence against him at a disciplinary hearing;
• misrepresenting that he had instructions to appear at a bail hearing; 
• making false representations to a third party that it had mistakenly caused a credit agency to adversely list his client and offered financial incentives to have the listing removed. 

In December last year Stubbs was convicted of 14 counts of dishonestly obtaining property by deception. Stubbs had told a client’s mother that he was not in receipt of a legal aid grant for his client, and subsequently received $25,620 from her in fees. 

He also told the legal aid commission that he was not in receipt of private funds for the matter and received another $4,013 from that source.  

He was sentenced to three years and one month’s imprisonment and has appealed against the conviction, which is set to be heard in November. 

The relatively simple question before Chief Justice Helen Murrell, Justice David Mossop and Justice Berna Collier was whether or not the defendant was a fit and proper person to remain on the local roll. 

In Stubbs’ case the court found: 

“The defendant has repeatedly demonstrated serious dishonesty and a fundamental lack of integrity in his dealings with courts, clients, the Law Society, and a third party.” 

Stubbs was struck off and ordered to pay the Law Society’s costs.