Holt, Michael Francis
Allegation / charges
<p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">1. Misled or attempted to mislead officer of State Revenue and Trust Account Inspectors</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">2. Failure to account</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">3. False stamping of documents in attempt to defraud the Office of State Revenue</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">4. Misappropriation</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">5. Negligence/Gross Negligence</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">6. Delay/Gross delay</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">7. Forging signatures</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">8. Wilful breach of section 61 of the Legal Profession Act 1987 - handling of trust moneys</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">9. Wilful breach of section 62 of the Legal Profession Act 1987 - failure to keep proper accounting records of trust moneys</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">10. Misleading clients</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">11. Practising without a practising certificate</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">12. Holding himself out to be a practising solicitor by using the letterhead of Holt & Allen</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">13. Breach of fiduciary duties</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">14. Failure to secure a relevant loan by failure to register a mortgage or lodge a caveat</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">15. Failure to attend diligently to the discharge of a mortgage</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">16. Wilfully misled the Legal Services Commissioner in the exercise of his investigatory powers</span></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">17. Acting in a conflict of interest</span></p> — Professional Misconduct
Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision
The document sets out 17 particulars of professional misconduct against a solicitor, including misappropriation, false stamping of documents to defraud the Office of State Revenue, forging signatures, misleading clients and regulators, practising without a certificate, and wilful breaches of the Legal Profession Act 1987 trust account provisions. The text provided lists only the conduct characterised as professional misconduct and does not record an express finding of dishonesty or the sanction imposed.
Duties found breached:
- Not mislead the court
- Avoid wasting the court's time
- No taking unfair advantage
- Uphold public trust in the profession
- No own-interest conflict
- No conflict between current clients
- Handle inadvertently received material
- No improper use of client money
- 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 own-interest conflict
- No conflict between current clients
- Handle inadvertently received material
- No improper use of client money
- 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