Terence Robert PURYER

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

Terence Robert Puryer, an Australian lawyer who was appearing in person as a party in Supreme Court proceedings, was charged with three counts arising from his conduct before Daubney J on 13 December 2007. Charge 1 (misleading the Court as to notice given to the co-tenant) was dismissed as the Tribunal was not persuaded any misleading was caused by Puryer or was deliberate. Charges 2 and 3 were upheld: the Tribunal found he deliberately misled the Court by failing to disclose the co-tenant's payment of 40% of rent (having sworn she made no contribution), and that he failed to meet his obligations of frankness and candour. Both were categorised as professional misconduct. Given the deliberate misleading, his self-interest, prior disciplinary history and lack of insight, he was found not fit to remain on the roll and his name was ordered removed. He was ordered to pay the applicant's costs of Charges 2 and 3, to be determined by later submissions (amount not fixed).

Duties found breached:

• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• The misleading of the Court was deliberate
• Conduct involved matters concerning his own interests (acting in a private capacity)
• Prior disciplinary history - found guilty of professional misconduct in March 2001 (six charges) and September 2002 (four charges plus unsatisfactory professional conduct)
• Lack of proper understanding of his obligations of frankness and candour as a lawyer and citizen
• His conduct in the disciplinary proceedings themselves showed want of appreciation of those obligations, including a late post-hearing attack on the discipline application