Tracey Anne SMITH

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

Tracey Anne Smith, a sole practitioner and accredited succession law specialist, faced twelve charges arising from having clients appoint her as executor/attorney, entering void cost agreements with her own firm, manufacturing false invoices and charging grossly excessive fees paid from trust, plus improper trust account transfers. The Tribunal found professional misconduct on eleven charges (with express findings of serious dishonesty) and unsatisfactory professional conduct on one. Despite significant cooperation and self-reporting, the Tribunal recommended she be struck off the Queensland and NSW rolls and ordered to pay the applicant's standard costs.

Duties found breached:

• No improper use of client money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Serious dishonesty in discharge of professional duty
• Conduct carried out over an extended period (from 2012, fraudulent taking over approximately three years)
• Large amounts of money involved
• Fees grossly disproportionate to work done (one exceeding reasonable amount by more than 90%)
• Manufacturing false invoices to give an air of legitimacy
• Double charging and overcharging clients
• Successful Fidelity Fund claims (totalling over $89,000)

Mitigating factors:

• Self-notified/self-reported conduct to the Commissioner
• Voluntarily handed in practising certificate
• Continued to provide information and cooperated throughout investigation
• Cooperated with QLS and appointed receivers
• Agreed to orders enabling new lawyers to take over estate files
• Cooperated with disciplinary proceedings, settled agreed statement of facts and agreed to final orders
• Accepted responsibility and apologised to victims and the profession
• Lost her practice, home, good name and faces criminal charges