Peter Nicholas Arthur ROWLANDS

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

Mr Rowlands faced twelve charges across two discipline applications (2006 and 2009) involving incompetence/lack of diligence, repeated failures to respond to Law Society and Commissioner communications, and making false representations. The Tribunal found most charges amounted to professional misconduct (some to unprofessional conduct) and expressly found his conduct in charge five (2006) involved dishonest and deceitful conduct. Given serious and fundamental repeated departures from professional standards, absence of remorse, and non-appearance, the Tribunal ordered his name removed from the local roll. He was ordered to pay the Commissioner's costs on the Supreme Court standard scale and compensation of $7,500 to Ms Cashin and $6,922.50 to Mr and Mrs Byers.

Duties found breached:

• Honesty
• Uphold public trust in the profession
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonest and deceitful attempt to cover up failures and put own interests ahead of clients (charge five 2006)
• Consistent conduct over an extended period (nine years), not isolated incidents
• Failure to comply in a timely manner with six separate investigations
• No remorse or recognition of seriousness
• Failure to acknowledge or respond to disciplinary proceedings