Decision record
Holt, Michael Francis
Allegation / charges
1. Misled or attempted to mislead officer of State Revenue and Trust Account Inspectors 2. Failure to account 3. False stamping of documents in attempt to defraud the Office of State Revenue 4. Misappropriation 5. Negligence/Gross Negligence 6. Delay/Gross delay 7. Forging signatures 8. Wilful breach of section 61 of the Legal Profession Act 1987 - handling of trust moneys 9. Wilful breach of section 62 of the Legal Profession Act 1987 - failure to keep proper accounting records of trust moneys 10. Misleading clients 11. Practising without a practising certificate 12. Holding himself out to be a practising solicitor by using the letterhead of Holt & Allen 13. Breach of fiduciary duties 14. Failure to secure a relevant loan by failure to register a mortgage or lodge a caveat 15. Failure to attend diligently to the discharge of a mortgage 16. Wilfully misled the Legal Services Commissioner in the exercise of his investigatory powers 17. Acting in a conflict of interest — Professional Misconduct
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The practitioner was found to have engaged in professional misconduct comprising a wide range of matters, including misleading State Revenue officers and trust account inspectors, failure to account, false stamping of documents to defraud the Office of State Revenue, misappropriation, negligence, delay, forging signatures, wilful breaches of sections 61 and 62 of the Legal Profession Act 1987 relating to trust moneys, misleading clients, practising without a certificate, holding himself out using another firm's letterhead, breach of fiduciary duties, failing to secure a loan, failing to discharge a mortgage, misleading the Legal Services Commissioner, and acting in a conflict of interest. The excerpt provided does not state the sanction imposed or costs.
Duties found breached:
- Not mislead the court
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- No taking unfair advantage
- Uphold public trust in the profession
- No conflict between current clients
- Handle inadvertently received material
- Diligence and timeliness
- Hold a current practising certificate
- Report serious misconduct of others
- Not misrepresent regulated status
⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["extracted_from_register_summary"]
Duties engaged
- Not mislead the court
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- Honesty
- No taking unfair advantage
- Uphold public trust in the profession
- No conflict between current clients
- Handle inadvertently received material
- Accounting records, reconciliation and reports
- Diligence and timeliness
- Hold a current practising certificate
- Report serious misconduct of others
- Not misrepresent regulated status
Other decisions involving this respondent
Matched by respondent name — may include a different person with the same name.
Documents
Source: https://portal.olsc.nsw.gov.au/dasearchbn/daresultdetail/?id=335ba7df-b633-eb11-bf74-000d3ad1941e