It was described as "probably the most serious client deception case the tribunal has seen"
The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has ordered that Hamilton lawyer Benjamin Wong be struck off over his “elaborate” deception of a client, reported the NZ Herald.
Counsel for the New Zealand Law Society Paul Collins said in a statement published by the Herald that Wong’s misleading of his client was “probably the most serious client deception case the tribunal has seen in its existence”.
In 2022, a client had engaged Wong to work on debt recovery proceedings. Wong proceeded to lie about how the case was progressing until February 2023, generating fake documents, submissions, case file numbers and communication. The deception also included a minute Wong claimed was from Judge Raymond Marshall granting leave to discontinue proceedings.
The lawyer also rendered dishonest fee invoices with narrations about court proceedings that never happened and disbursements for filing fees even though nothing had been filed. He placed the blame for the lack of progress on court staff and “the court system”, according to the New Zealand Law Society.
The client eventually filed a complaint against Wong, and the tribunal suspended him on an interim basis on 14 February. A hearing was then held last Wednesday in Auckland District Court to determine whether Wong’s misconduct warranted a long-term suspension or if he should be struck off altogether, as per the Herald.
Wong said that he couldn’t remember forging the minute by Marshall, the signatures of a court registrar and a lawyer, or invoices, submissions by opposing counsel, and District and High Court case numbers. Nonetheless, he confessed to the charges.
Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal deputy chairman Dr John Adams said in a statement published by the Herald that Wong’s apparent memory lapse was “troubling”.
“We’re kind of left open-mouthed I suppose. There must be something that causes a person to do a thing. And our problem is we don’t know what it is. If he doesn’t know why he did it, then we can’t know either”, Adams said.
Wong’s lawyer Sara Cameron agreed in a statement published by the Herald that his behaviour was “extremely odd”.
“It is difficult to conceive of an explanation that would make sense. There was no benefit to him whatsoever, and it seems inevitable to him that he would be discovered”, Cameron said.
Collins said in a statement published by the Herald that Wong’s “elaborate deception took as much effort as the real work would have taken” and described it as a “reasonably sophisticated forgery”. He added that Wong’s effort was “extraordinary” given the lack of clear benefit Wong got from it and speculated that Wong had “some sort of phobia in engaging with the courts”.
Collins said that he could only guess at Wong’s motive given Wong’s lack of justification. Collins also said that Wong’s memory blank explanation was not credible.
Cameron said that she didn’t think Wong had a plan in mind once his deception was revealed.
“Whether he had a plan or he didn’t, he was going to be found out. It really had one ending for him, which is where he is today”, Cameron said in a statement published by the Herald.
Wong did not take the stand or give evidence at the hearing.
