Shanan John Ryan RAMSDEN

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

A 29-year-old solicitor post-dated a mortgage (executed July 2002, dated 22 December 2002) to avoid a $44.85 Stamp Duty lodgement penalty, misled the Office of State Revenue by lodging the incorrectly verified document, and delayed lodgement. The first two charges were professional misconduct; the third was unsatisfactory professional conduct. The Tribunal distinguished the case from Bax (who was dishonest and uncooperative), noting this respondent's prompt acknowledgement, cooperation and remorse. He was fined $5,000, publicly reprimanded, and ordered to pay $2,000 costs. No express finding of dishonesty was made against him.

Duties found breached:

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

Aggravating factors:

• Post-dating a document is a serious offence by a practitioner
• Conduct raised query as to his fitness to practise

Mitigating factors:

• First infraction
• Complete cooperation with the Commission and Tribunal
• Prompt and full acknowledgement of error
• Expressed contrition and remorse
• Implemented office systems to prevent recurrence
• Unlikely to commit further ethical breaches