KEY POINTS:
A lawyer who once held public figures up to scrutiny over double dipping and high pensions has been jailed for more than two years for stealing from clients.
The fall from grace of David Stevenson, 58, of Ngaio, began in July 2005, when he began writing false or inflated invoices and drawing money from trusts he managed for three clients, Wellington District Court was told today.
For the next 22 months he systematically siphoned money from the three trusts, belonging to an elderly off-shore client, an elderly hospitalised client, and the estate of a deceased client he administered.
In total, he made 40 transactions, taking $211,800, none of which had been repaid.
Prosecutor Luke Clancy told the court the money was taken to supplement Stevenson's lifestyle.
His clients had been vulnerable and Stevenson had held a position of trust.
Stevenson, struck off the roll of barristers and solicitors last year, had been practising law in Wellington since 1972.
In April 2007, when working as the sole practitioner at Webb, Paris and Stevenson, he was told by the Law Society it intended to do a routine audit of his accounts.
Stevenson immediately admitted to stealing money from three of his clients.
He pleaded guilty in December to three charges of fraud.
Today his lawyer, Richard Laurenson, said although Stevenson and his wife, who was a nurse, both received an income, and had no dependants, they had not accumulated any assets or wealth during the course of their 25-year marriage.
"His practice never produced for him other than a modest income," Mr Laurenson said.
Stevenson had always had an interest in political matters, and had been a member of two political parties, in 1984 and again in the early 1990s, when he was a New Zealand First parliamentary list candidate.
He had been an outspoken critic of double-dipping and high pensions of judges and MPs.
The "irony and complete contradiction" of that to his present circumstances would not be unnoticed by the court, Mr Laurenson said.
His offending had come as a complete surprise to his colleagues, friends and family, who were struggling to understand.
"It is a bizarre aberration to what previously has been a blameless professional and good life," Mr Laurenson said.
The pre-sentence report said Stevenson had a sense of entitlement to the money, which Mr Laurenson refuted.
He said the only explanation Stevenson could give was that he had been going through a period of depression over the global political, economic and geo-political situation.
The offending took place while Stevenson was overwhelmed with a sense of impending Armageddon, Mr Laurenson said.
Mr Laurenson said Stevenson had no money to make reparation.
However, he urged the judge to consider a sentence of home detention, citing his client's blameless previous record, his loss of his practice and profession, and his early guilty plea.
Stevenson's wife was unwell and needed her husband's care.
Judge Peter Butler said he had to take into account the extent of offending and the length of time over which it occurred.
He refused to consider home detention saying all comparable cases resulted in a sentence of imprisonment, and sentenced Stevenson to two years and three months in jail.
- NZPA
