DAMIEN GERARD BRENNAN
Allegation / charges
Struck Off the Roll of Practitioners
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The Legal Profession Complaints Committee applied to have Damien Brennan struck off the Roll after he was convicted of 71 offences including stealing $767,245.30 from client Josef Kopec, $129,542 from the Public Trustee, and attempted fraud regarding share proceeds. He was sentenced to 7.5 years' imprisonment. The SAT found professional misconduct by illegal conduct and recommended removal. The Full Bench of the Supreme Court found Brennan not fit and proper due to lack of honesty and integrity, and struck his name from the Roll. No order as to costs was made because costs were treated as part of the cost of regulating the profession and there was no realistic prospect of recovery.
Duties found breached:
Aggravating factors:
- Theft totalling over $896,000 from vulnerable client and estate
- Protracted conduct over nearly seven years
- Betrayal of client's trust for personal financial gain
- High degree of premeditation; offences purposeful not impulsive
- Serial offender per sentencing judge
- Took advantage of vulnerable client unable to call practitioner to account
- Refused to co-operate with the Committee's inquiries
Mitigating factors:
- Pleaded guilty to 71 of 103 counts in criminal proceedings
- Did not oppose the strike-off application
Duties engaged
Other decisions involving this respondent
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