Michael Dermott YARWOOD

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

Michael Yarwood, a sole practitioner, collected stamp duty funds from clients between 2004 and 2007 but failed to remit them to the Office of State Revenue, forging other self-assessors' stamps, causing a loss of $236,227 to the State. He was convicted on his own plea of two counts of fraud and one count of uttering and sentenced to 4.5 years imprisonment (suspended). QCAT found his conduct amounted to professional misconduct involving deliberate dishonesty and fraud, rejecting the submission that his psychiatric illness caused the offending. As his asserted psychiatric condition remained unresolved at hearing, he was found not a fit and proper person. His name was ordered removed from the local roll and he was ordered to pay costs on the Supreme Court scale.

Duties found breached:

• Proper basis for allegations
• Personal probity and fitness to practise
• Handle inadvertently received material
• Prompt accounting and return of money
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Deliberate acts of dishonesty and fraud with some element of sophistication
• Conduct prolonged over a period of three years
• Exploitation of position of trust as an authorised self-assessor for the OSR
• Total loss to the State of Queensland of $236,227
• Ongoing psychiatric condition (the asserted cause) not removed as at date of hearing

Mitigating factors:

• Voluntarily surrendered practising certificate in early 2007 and did not reapply
• Pleaded guilty at an early stage
• Self-disclosed relevant information to the OSR
• Suffered major depressive disorder, PTSD and anxiety
• Prior good character