ABC News
In short:
Ex-lawyer Mark Adam Freer has been struck off the roll of legal practitioners in South Australia.
He had previously been sentenced to a jail term for aggravated theft and fabricating evidence.
What’s next?
Freer consented to being struck off and must pay the Legal Practitioners Conduct Commissioner’s costs.
A former Adelaide lawyer has been struck off the South Australian roll of legal practitioners for his “serious departure” from professional standards over his misuse of trust funds.
Mark Adam Freer, 53, of Craigmore, was found guilty of aggravated theft in 2022 for misappropriating cheques totalling $67,500 from his cousin, who was a client, which should have been deposited into a trust account of his employer.
Instead, he opened a new bank account in the name of a business he controlled, deposited the cheques and used the money for his own benefit until the account was overdrawn.
He also made a statutory declaration in which he “admitted witnessing signatures on a loan agreement and associated documents without ever meeting or speaking to the declarant”, which enabled a fraudulent loan transaction and mortgage to be registered.
The Full Court of the Supreme Court granted an application, by the Legal Practitioners Conduct Commissioner, to have Freer’s name removed from the roll of lawyers.
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