Danielle Murphy [1997] NSWLST 4

The Legal Services Tribunal of New South Wales

CITATION : Danielle Murphy [1997] NSWLST 4 PARTIES : Danielle Murphy FILE NUMBER(S) : of 1996 CORAM: Mr F Riley (President) - Ms J.M. Mattila - Mr J. O'Neill CATCHWORDS: Clerk misappropriated funds from employer's trust account :- Forgery LEGISLATION CITED: Legal Profession Act 1987 CASES CITED: DATES OF HEARING: 11 February 1997 DATE OF JUDGMENT: 02/11/1997 LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES: Mr Pierotti, solicitor, for the Law Society of New South Wales. No appearance for the Clerk.

JUDGMENT:

C hairman: The Tribunal accepts the evidence of Brian Hillman which establishes that the clerk, Danielle Murphy, took from the trust account cheque book of the firm, Hillman Mura & Consultants, four cheque forms on which she forged the signature of Edward Mura, a partner of that firm, and, in respect of three of those cheques, fraudulently obtained from the bank at which the firm's trust account was conducted cash which she appropriated to her own use. The first three cheques which she presented to the bank in the latter part of April 1996 enabled her to obtain from the bank, in total, the sum of $3,300.

The clerk's dishonesty came to the attention of Mr Hillman when, on 6 May 1996, the clerk sought to present a fourth cheque to the bank and obtain cash in a sum which she informed the solicitor in a subsequent conversation was $2,000. It had been contended by a bank officer that the amount sought by the clerk was $20,000. The amount is not relevant to the Tribunal's determination.

The clerk, in a discussion with Mr Hillman at his office following her last attendance at the bank, admitted to him her misappropriation of the sum of $3,300 obtained by the presentation of the first three cheques and she attended his office again on 7 May with another person, on which occasion she paid to the firm a cheque for $3,300 intended to be accepted in restitution of the money fraudulently obtained by her.