Brandis with a pint near special spa establishment … Serious crime prevention not so serious … Tasmania looking for “layers” to serve on the Supremes … Charles Waterstreet’s celebrity press conference mysteriously cancelled … Judicial misbehaviour … Goings On with Theodora 

THERE have been sightings in London of attorney general Soapy Brandis. 

According to one source he was seen with a pint in one hand at a venue not far from the Australian High Commission. Fluttering nearby was a flag bearing the signage of the “Thai Square Spa”. 

This establishment is a nominee for the 2017 World Luxury Spa Award. 

Our mole says Soapy’s pint was nearly empty and the contents looked to be amber. 

He was in London to make some opening effusions at the ABA knees-up – by way of a detour from the Five Eyes chinwag in Ottawa, where he was accompanied by Benito Dutton. 

Soapy, who is across all things technological and digital, announced that he would lead the Five Eyes discussion in a session devoted to tackling encryption and “the use by terrorists of cyberspace”.  

Here’s an example of his skills in this area: 

Soapy also attended the Quintet Meetings of Attorneys General, which issued a communiqué about the challenging work with which it tried to grapple. 

Last year, NSW police minister Troy-Boy Grant, then the deputy premier, introduced the Crimes (Serious Crime Prevention Order) Bill with great fanfare. 

Together with the Organised Crime and Public Safety Bill, these new laws would enable the wallopers to get orders restricting the movements and activities of criminals and people who they thought might be criminals. 

Troy Boy’s statement was replete with over-egged verbiage: 

“We’re serious about crippling the organised crime economy … We make no apologies for improving community safely … Crime gangs will be hit where it hurts …”  

Police commissioner Andrew Scipione also was pumped, saying that the cops now have more power to prevent and disrupt serious criminals. 

Liberal MP, former barrister and devoted Lawn Order man, Alistair Hens-Kens, was also enthusiastic and claimed the serious crime prevention law was modelled on fantastic British legislation. 

However, the NSW bar was unimpressed with Hens-Kens and the legislation . President Noel Hutley wrote a letter slapping down the member for Ku-ring-gai, explaining that the worst elements of the NSW legislation find no correspondence in the UK act – namely the possibility of an order in the absence of a conviction for a serious crime and the use of hearsay evidence.  

“How many Serious Crime Prevention Orders have been made since the enactment of the relevant legislation?” 

“It’s a pity they didn’t criminalise the making of over-the-top rhetorical flourishes by ministers.” 

Lawyers have been putting up their hands for a slot on the Tas Supremes. 

Expressions of interest have been called and applications are flooding into the Justice Department. 

Among the required qualifications are that that applicants have to be “an Australian layer of not less than 10 years standing”. 

Many well-credentialed layers, not to mention layabouts, are rushing to put themselves forward by the deadline of July 14.  

“Charles Waterstreet and his clients, the Lazarus Sisters, Sandra and Michelle will hold a news conference … at Charles Waterstreet’s office in the Boardroom of Rake Chambers, Level 1, 299 Elizabeth St. Sydney.”  

The Lazarus lasses, it might be recalled, had a run-in with ICAC over allegations of fraudulent billing at two Sydney hospitals. Invoices had been presented to doctors, whose signatures had authorised various payments. In the main, the doctors denied the signatures were theirs. 

Michelle got a suspended nine months sentence for giving false or misleading evidence to ICAC in its inquiry called Operation Charity. Sandra was found guilty of multiple offences of dishonestly obtaining a benefit by deception. She was sentenced to an aggregate term of 21 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 16 months. 

Then followed a large number of applications for judicial review, leaves to appeal, summonses to review the conviction, strike out and stay applications – all of which were unsuccessful. 

On June 19, 2017, appeals against conviction and sentence of Sandra and Michelle were listed for hearing in the District Court. Michelle failed to turn up and her appeals were dismissed for want of prosecution and her sentence confirmed. 

Sandra appeared and sought an adjournment. It was stood over till June 20 for hearing. She failed to appear on that day and her appeal against conviction was dismissed. 

Waterstreet had taken on the cause of the Lazarus sisters, even penning a supportive piece in The Sun Herald, published on December 19, 2015 – where he forgot to mention that on December 15 Sandra did not appear at her appeal against Garling J’s decision to dismiss her application for judicial review. 

The court then concluded the appeal had no realistic prospects of success, refused leave and ordered Sandra to pay the crown’s costs. 

Chris (The Tamil) Merritt in April 2016, was spruiking Waterstreet’s great strategy to unstitch ICAC’s finding against the Lazerines.  

Then we received the notice from Max Markson that Charles and his clients will “fully discuss” at Rake Chambers a great list of grievances, including: 

Naturally Theodora was keen to attend, yet just an hour before the show was scheduled to lift-off an email arrived from Max saying that the news conference had been cancelled. 

“What’s going on?” we inquired, disappointed at being denied a peek inside Rake Chambers. 

“Charles didn’t realise we were doing it and felt that because the matter is still before the courts it was inappropriate,” Max explained.

Isn’t celebrity PR a great caper? 

Justice John Lyons, an Australian judge, has served in a variety of posts abroad – with some interesting highlights. 

We find that in 2009 he retired from the Supreme Court of The Bahamas. 

The following year he arrived in Lesotho, to head the commercial division of the High Court. 

Lesotho, formerly Basutoland, is a landlocked nation, surrounded by South Africa. Lyons was seconded to that judicial post under a scheme promoted the Commonwealth of Nations. 

He had a grand introduction from the chief justice M.L Lehohla, at a ceremonial opening of the 2010 session of the Lesotho High Court. 

The CJ told the gathered dignitaries that Lyons was born in Hobart and matriculated from The Friends’ School, “where he was identified as a born leader being appointed prefect and house vice-captain in his final year”. 

He took up work at the Electrolytic Zinc Company before enrolling in law at the University of Tasmania. Before long he was practising in Brisbane and Mackay and in 1995 became a judge of the High Court of Fiji. 

Two years later, Lesotho Times struck a sour note, with a story about Lyons from his Nassau days. Under the headline Top judge’s stained past exposed, the story claimed that Lyons left the Bahamas under a cloud.  

It was alleged he appointed an accountant, whose sister he was squiring, to investigate the financial affairs of two wealthy brothers who were squabbling over $US100 million in a case before him. 

The accountant, Daniel Ferguson, was accused of being under-qualified for the task, nonetheless he secured fees of $US6 million for a report described by another judge as “insufficient”. 

Daniel’s sister is Shonel Ferguson, a former Olympian and a Bahamas track and field champion. She was also helping her brother on the contract at $US500 an hour. 

According to the report in Lesotho Times, Lyons recused himself from the case, saying  he “did not have enough time” to hear it. Justice Anita Allen took up where he left off and her judgment was scathing. She has “serious concerns about the appointment of the accountant and, as a consequence, the integrity of the report”. 

“Justice John Lyons has literally forced the appointment on them [lawyers for the parties] threatening to walk out of the court if they did not agree with the appointment … 

The judge was asked by one counsel if it was an ultimatum, to which he responded ‘you bet it is’.” 

The former attorney general of The Bahamas, Tennyson Wells, called on the prime minister to investigate the case “in order to restore confidence in the judiciary”. 

Lyons at one stage must have hoped that Lesotho would be a happy retreat from the drama of The Bahamas.