The County Court imposed a 4-year community correction order with 600 hours of community work (the statutory maximum) for a former senior counsel who attempted to obtain financial advantage by deception through inflated and falsified legal fee claims in a class action settlement. The Court held that the unknown quantum of the dishonest fee component — attributable to the offender's poor record-keeping — precluded treating the offence as a serious instance, and that the combination of an 8-year delay, early guilty plea, extensive pro bono and charitable contributions going beyond ordinary good character, significant extra-curial punishment (striking off, bankruptcy, social disgrace), and negligible risk of reoffending justified a non-custodial sentence. Applying De Simoni, the Court excluded from its gravity assessment uncharged conduct that could have constituted the more serious offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice (maximum 25 years), and indicated under s 6AAA that absent the guilty plea the sentence would have been 2 years' imprisonment with a 1-year non-parole period.
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