Russell William Tracy BIDDLE

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

Russell William Tracy Biddle, a Queensland solicitor, was convicted on guilty pleas of ten counts of dishonest application of trust property, having stolen $1,821,230.59 from the Dawson and Goffin Estates over 19 months in his capacity as executor and attorney. He was sentenced to seven and a half years imprisonment. QCAT found his conduct amounted to professional misconduct and that he was not a fit and proper person to practise. The Tribunal ordered his name removed from the roll and ordered him to pay the Commissioner's costs on the standard basis. Dishonesty was expressly found.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• No taking unfair advantage
• No improper use of client money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Total amount misappropriated $1,821,230.59
• Conduct occurred over 19-month period across ten occasions
• Gross abuse of trust as solicitor, executor and attorney
• Very small repayment ($172,114.73) made personally
• Significant loss to Fidelity Fund ($958,248.62) and to estates
• Untruthful and dishonest dealings with clients, including showing false trust ledger entries labelled 'investment'
• Money used for ATO debt and personal/business expenses

Mitigating factors:

• Guilty plea in criminal proceedings
• Did not oppose the disciplinary orders including removal from the roll