Christopher Twigley debited money from his clients' accounts without their permission. Photo / Thinkstock
Christopher Twigley debited money from his clients' accounts without their permission. Photo / Thinkstock
Five years after being struck-off for embezzling thousands of dollars of his clients’ money, Christopher Twigley wants to be a lawyer again.
Twigley admitted the six reckless conduct charges at a hearing of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal in 2016, though he was bankrupt and living in Australia at the time and didn’t attend in person.
He was struck-off from the roll of barristers by the tribunal and ordered to pay $20,000 in legal costs the following year.
The tribunal said at the time that Twigley had borrowed money from his clients without them first obtaining independent legal advice and also debited fees from other clients without their knowledge or permission.
“The overall picture is of a man desperately fighting to save his practice and his career and in doing so taking a number of shortcuts and steps that were focused more on his financial viability than on the clients’ interests or needs,” they said in their decision at the time.
Now, Twigley wants to practice law again and will appear before the same tribunal next month to argue his case.
Christopher Twigley's former practice in Tauranga. Photo / Facebook
A lawyer only has to argue their case for admittance to the roll of barristers before the tribunal if the New Zealand Law Society has opposed their application.
The Herald has attempted to contact Twigley without success.
In 2014 Twigley was loaned $150,000 by a client but was unable to pay him back in time and some of his belongings were repossessed.
While acting for another client in 2014 Twigley borrowed $4000 from him before asking to borrow a further $50,000 which the man says he refused.
However, Twigley withdrew $30,000 from his client’s deceased mother’s trust account and deposited it into his own.
The same year Twigley was administering a deceased estate when he debited $3500 from the trust account and didn’t provide an invoice.
However, the tribunal at the time found that the invoice - when it was eventually issued - was worth at maximum just over $600 and his own timesheets showed the last time he did billable work for the estate was six months prior.
Roughly $10,000 of those funds were used to pay Twigley’s staff at his practice in Tauranga.
By March the following year Twigley was in the process of winding up his practice and sent the man an invoice for $10,000 in respect of work he’d done administering the estate. The tribunal found in 2017 that there was no justification for sending this invoice as he hadn’t actually done any work since sending the previous one.
While acting for another client in administrating their deceased son’s estate he took a further $3000 from the estate and deposited it into his own account.
Twigley told the hearing that the discrepancy in finances and loan amounts was a departure from his usual careful practice and that he was in a desperate phase of “fire fighting” at the time.
At the 2017 hearing counsel for the standards committee prosecuting Twigley, Dale La Hood, said that he’d taken advantage of his client’s’ trust “in an attempt to rescue his own dire personal financial situation”.
“This was a serious breach of Mr Twigley’s duties of fidelity and independence and his duty to protect his client’s interests,” La Hood said.
“The solicitor’s trust account has long been regarded as sacrosanct and dealing with its funds for personal use is considered to be at the highest level of professional misconduct and culpability.”
In his own submissions to the tribunal Twigley said that he’d admitted the offending at an early stage and had accepted that he was ultimately responsible and expressed remorse at the difficulties he’d caused.
