Rodney Richard BUDGEN

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

Rodney Budgen, a sole practitioner acting as executor of the Kirby estate, was found guilty of professional misconduct for failing to maintain reasonable standards of competence and diligence in operating his trust account (applying $42,950 of unsupported/'write-up' fees to himself and not refunding $28,727.01) and for failing to comply with investigator requisitions. He was also found to have engaged in unsatisfactory professional conduct for failing to comply with a 2011 Tribunal order to pay employee superannuation. The Tribunal expressly rejected any suggestion of dishonesty. Given a prior professional misconduct finding and his conduct over an extended period, the Tribunal ordered his name removed from the local Roll (declining to impose a fine due to his impecuniosity), ordered a public reprimand and practising certificate restrictions in the related matter, ordered costs on the standard basis (plus $1,500 costs in the OCR362-12 matter), and ordered repayment of $28,727.01 to the estate beneficiaries.

Duties found breached:

• Non-discriminatory acceptance and cab-rank
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Prior 2011 finding of professional misconduct (unpaid superannuation of $17,252.20 plus $1,500 costs still outstanding)
• Misconduct occurred over an extended period
• Applied excessive trust funds ($42,950 in unsupported items) to his own account and failed to refund $28,727.01 or amend invoices as required
• Failed to contact the Commissioner or beneficiaries to explain non-compliance

Mitigating factors:

• No dishonesty found - Commissioner expressly disavowed any allegation of dishonesty
• Major depressive disorder and poor mental/physical health following marriage breakdown
• Financial hardship/impecuniosity
• Genuine intention to comply with earlier orders, frustrated by circumstances beyond control (Family Court orders, GFC)
• Admitted three of four charges and conceded billing practice was unsatisfactory