Tauranga
barrister Vinay Deobhakta has been struck off for misconduct after trying to
convert client funds to his own use and then sending abusive and obscene text
messsages when this client took his work elsewhere.
The High Court was told a Mr Zaheed approached
Mr Deobhakta in 2009 for professional advice during a tax fraud
investigation. Inland Revenue alleged $400,000
in tax arrears was due. Mr Deobhakta
required a $2000 cash payment from Mr Zaheer before he was willing to act for
him. Subsequently, a meeting was
arranged with Inland Revenue to canvas potential arrangements over the $400,000
debt. Evidence was given that Mr Zaheed
was willing to offer Inland Revenue $75,000 all up in three instalments of
$25,000 each. Eventually, nothing came of
this offer and Mr Zaheed was convicted on fourteen charges of tax avoidance. Disciplinary action against Mr Deobhakta
arose from preparations to pay the first proposed instalment. Mr Zaheer set out for the first Inland
Revenue meeting with a bank cheque in favour of Inland Revenue made out for
$25,000. Mr Deobhakta required this
cheque to be cancelled, replaced by a bank cheque made out to Inland Revenue
for $21,000 and the balance of $4000 to be given to him in cash. No cheque was handed over to Inland
Revenue. Mr Deobhakta then later asked
that the replacement $21,000 Inland Revenue cheque be cancelled, to be
substituted by a cheque in his name. He
said the funds were needed for a “personal matter”. He indicated this “personal matter” was
investigations into alleged bribery associated with immigration applications. This had nothing to do with Mr Zaheed or his
tax issues. Mr Zaheed refused to replace
the bank cheque for a second time and subsequently took his legal work elsewhere. Before that, Mr Deobhakta had drawn up a fees
contingency agreement in which he acknowledged that Mr Zaheed had paid a total
of $15,000 in fees to date and undertook to refund this money if there was no
satisfactory outcome in his client’s dispute with Inland Revenue. The undertaking was worthless. Four days after signing, Mr Deobhakta was
bankrupted on a debt owed ASB Bank.
Mr Deobhakta was struck off the roll of lawyers
permitted to practice and ordered to pay compensation: $4000 to Mr Zaheed and
$32,200 to the Law Society for costs of its disciplinary investigation.
Re
Deobhakta – High Court (8.05.15)
15.043