Decision record
ALESSANDRO PALUMBO
Allegation / charges
Struck Off the Roll of Practitioners
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Full Court considered two Tribunal reports concerning Allesandro Palumbo. The first arose from his conviction for possession of cocaine (fined $1500 in the lower court). The second arose from his conviction for conspiracy to defeat the course of justice, having arranged for his nephew to take responsibility for a red-light traffic infringement to avoid losing his licence (fined $3000). The Court found the conspiracy especially serious as it struck at the heart of justice, and noted the sentencing judge's description of sustained dishonesty. The Court held the practitioner's dishonesty and disregard for the law rendered him unfit for practice and ordered him struck off the Roll.The I I included the underlying criminal fines but these were imposed by criminal courts, not the disciplinary tribunal; no fine or costs were imposed as the disciplinary sanction.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Conspiracy struck at the heart of justice
- Conduct engaged in after hours of reflection, not spur of the moment
- Sustained dishonesty by a person who should have known better
- Combined significance of two separate instances of serious misconduct
- Committed while practising as counsel in a criminal drug trial
Mitigating factors:
- Plea of guilty in both matters
- Voluntary cessation of practice / co-operation
- Traumatic marital separation in 1999
- Adverse publicity and economic/social downfall
- Favourable character references
- No prior criminal record
- Contrition and remorse
- Not addicted to any substance