Lawyer suspended for allegedly withdrawing nearly $500,000 from clients' account

The Lawyers and Conveyancers Disciplinary Tribunal has suspended a lawyer who allegedly made unauthorised withdrawals worth nearly $500,000 from his clients' account.

The Standards Committee sought the suspension against Aaron Rodney Nicholls due to the alleged discrepancies. According to the committee's accusations, Nicholls made nine unauthorised withdrawals from clients' account totalling $496,700.

The amount, originally $498,897, was initially placed into an interest-bearing account, with the clients authorising Nicholls to make payments on their behalf to a builder whom they had contracted to build a house for them.

But there were discrepancies surrounding the funds, which was discovered in June 2023, when Nicholls said the amount in the bank was $497,339, despite the actual amount only at $413,714 based on bank records.

When the clients also authorised Nicholls to pay builders $170,820, they found that the lawyer made the payment using other client funds held in Nicholls' trust account.

By January 2024, bank records revealed that the remaining balance was only at $4,831, when it should have been $328,077 before any interest, taxes, or fees were accounted for. And when the committee intervened in the trust account in March, the remaining balance was at $121,940.

Suspension granted

Nicholls, when confronted by investigators, was also "unable to answer questions about the movement of funds satisfactorily."

"He was not able to locate the paper file for the complainant clients. The investigators report that he appeared disorganised and was not functioning well," read the tribunal's documents.

The tribunal then granted the committee's request to suspend Nicholls, citing the interests of his clients whose funds may have been mishandled.

"Given the allegation about the misleading bank statement provided to the complainants, we cannot have confidence that any existing or future clients would be sufficiently protected should Mr Nicholls be allowed to continue in practice," the tribunal said.