Lance Rigley

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

Lance Geoffrey Rigley, a sole practitioner principal, faced 12 uncontested charges arising from conduct between 2010 and 2018. Charge 1 relied on his conviction for fraud (sentenced to 3 years imprisonment, suspended after 6 months) for withdrawing trust funds totalling $80,683.51 exceeding legal services provided. Charges 2-4 concerned unlawful withdrawals of trust money, and charges 5-12 concerned failures to comply with s 443 investigative notices. The Tribunal found express dishonesty and characterised all conduct as professional misconduct. It recommended his name be removed from the local roll and ordered him to pay the applicant's costs on the standard basis, notwithstanding his undischarged bankruptcy, as no exceptional circumstances existed.</summary>

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Conduct was persistent and protracted, involving numerous fraudulent transactions
• Repeated refusal to comply with statutory obligations designed to protect the public
• No evidence of remediation or of likely future fitness to practise
• Fraud perpetrated on clients' trust money

Mitigating factors:

• Did not contest any of the charges; proceeded on agreed statement of facts
• Accepted that his conduct should result in removal from the roll
• Pleaded guilty to the criminal fraud charge