"There is no place in practice for a lawyer who has been party to such a serious level of deception"
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Lawyer Timothy Upton Slack has been struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors.
The order was handed down by the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal months after he was sentenced at the Auckland High Court to 10 months home detention. He earlier pleaded guilty to serious fraud.
Authorities said that Slack made false statements in order to obtain a $40 million credit facility to allow a company to develop a hotel in Auckland.
“Following offending of this magnitude, it is almost inevitable that a practitioner will be struck off the roll,” New Zealand Law Society President Kathryn Beck said. “Mr Slack’s actions have let the whole legal profession down. There is no place in practice for a lawyer who has been party to such a serious level of deception.”
The New Zealand Law Society’s National Standards Committee brought the charge before the tribunal. It said that following his guilty plea to a charge that was punishable by imprisonment if convicted, Upton was not fit to practice or brought the profession into disrepute.
The former lawyer did not contest his striking-off. He has also been ordered to pay the Law Society $1,810.25 in costs.
