SIMON ALEXANDER HOLME

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

A WA legal practitioner was found guilty of professional misconduct for receiving and retaining interest earned on his firm's trust account (contrary to the Legal Contribution Trust Act and Public Purposes Trust Act) over more than four years, and of unsatisfactory professional conduct (conceded) for failing to pay employee superannuation, failing to lodge superannuation guarantee statements, failing to remit PAYG withholding, and failing to secure client documents during winding up. The Tribunal found his conduct dishonest - he either knew or recklessly disregarded that he was receiving and retaining the trust interest. Although he suffered from depression and anxiety and was under financial pressure, this only partially explained but did not excuse his conduct. The Tribunal declined to strike him off but ordered that no local practising certificate be granted for two years, with a supervision condition on any future certificate, and ordered him to pay costs of $10,000.

Duties found breached:

• Uphold public trust in the profession
• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct occurred regularly every month for over four years, not a single or occasional oversight
• Practitioner enriched himself with trust interest used to maintain his practice

Mitigating factors:

• Suffering from major depressive and anxiety disorders at the relevant time (partial explanation)
• Under extreme financial pressure
• Overwhelmed by a more difficult challenge than expected in acquiring and operating the practice
• Concessions/admissions made regarding complaints B, C and D
• Currently unemployed and an undischarged bankrupt (relevant to costs)