Wood v Director-General, Department of Fair Trading [2002] NSWADT 183

CITATION: Wood v Director-General, Department of Fair Trading [2002] NSWADT 183 DIVISION: General Division APPLICANT PARTIES: Alan Grant Wood RESPONDENT Director-General, Department of Fair Trading FILE NUMBER: 023076 HEARING DATES: 07/08/02 SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: 08/07/2002 DATE OF DECISION: 09/25/2002

BEFORE: Higgins S - Judicial Member APPLICATION: Conveyancer - grant of licence - Conveyancers Licencing Act 1995 - Conveyancer - grant of licence MATTER FOR DECISION: Principal matter Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act 1997 Conveyancers Licensing Act 1995 LEGISLATION CITED : Conveyancers Licensing Regulation 1993 Conveyancers Licensing Regulation 2001 Property, Stock and Business Agents Act 1941 CASES CITED: State of New South Wales v Citco Industries Pty Ltd (2001) 53 NSWLR 451 APPLICANT REPRESENTATION: In person RESPONDENT A Wilson, solicitor ORDERS: The decision of the Director-General to refuse Mr Wood's application for a conveyancer's licence is affirmed.

BACKGROUND 1 On 3 April 2002, Mr Wood applied to the Tribunal pursuant to s.14(a) of the Conveyancers Licencing Act, 1995 ("the Act") and s.38 of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Act, 1997 for a review of the decision of the Director-General, Department of Fair Trading ("the Director-General") to refuse his application for a grant of a conveyancer's licence under the Act. 2 Mr Wood has previously held a restricted conveyancer's licence, which he voluntarily surrendered in late 1998. As a holder of a restricted conveyancer's licence Mr Wood operated under the name of Twin Towns Conveyancing. On 13 August 1998, on an ex parte application by the Director-General, the Supreme Court of NSW appointed a receiver and manager of Mr Wood's property, including his Twin Town Conveyancing business. 3 The Director-General sought the appointment of a receiver following a claim by Citco Industries Pty Ltd ("Citco") under s.38 of the Act against the Compensation Fund established pursuant to the Property, Stock and Business Agents Act, 1941. The basis of the Citco claim was Mr Wood's failure to account for $150,000 that Citco deposited with Mr Wood for the purpose of on lending it to a third party introduced by Mr Wood. 4 Following the appointment of the receiver, Mr Wood's conveyancing business was wound up. And in the course of the business being wound up there were other customers of Mr Wood who also made a claim of the Compensation Fund because of Mr Wood's failure to account for money they had deposited with Mr Wood for on lending to a party introduced to them by Mr Wood. 5 On 5 November 2001, Mr Wood made a new application for a conveyancer's licence under the Act. 6 On 5 February 2002, the Director-General refused Mr Woods' application on the basis that he had previously conducted his conveyancing business, as a licensed conveyancer, contrary to the provisions of the Act. The Director-General subsequently conducted an internal review of his decision and on 12 March 2002, having completed that review, advised Mr Wood that the previous decision had been affirmed. 7 The grounds on which the Director-General made his decision were: (a) that Mr Wood had failed to comply with the requirement of Division 2 of Part 3 of the Act in relation to trust money in that he failed to operate a trust account (s.13(1)(d) of the Act). Relevant to this was the manner in which he dealt with money he had received from lenders to on lend to third parties introduced by him; and (b) that Mr Wood had failed to provide documents when requested and to give a satisfactory explanation of his conduct while he was previously licenced under the Act (s.13(1)(h) of the Act). LEGISLATION 8 The Conveyancers Licencing Act, 1995 ("The Act") regulates conveyancing work which is defined in s.4(1) and (2) to mean: " 4(1) For the purpose of this Act, conveyancing work is legal work carried out in connection with any transaction that creates, varies , transfers or extinguishes illegal or equitable interest in any real or personal property, such as (for example) any of the following transactions: