Financial Advisor killed client after argument about budgeting

Website Image - R v Kelly [2012] NSWSC 1104
 

**EXPLICIT CONTENT WARNING**

Simon Clarke (a pseudonym) won the Oz Lotto for $5 million. Given his change in financial circumstances, Simon sought advice from a Financial Advisor to help him manage his lotto money. After some research, he made the decision to go with Peter Kelly.

At the time, Simon and his wife Lisa Clarke (a pseudonym) lived in the Central Coast in New South Wales, Australia. Simon and Lisa later moved to Tamworth and Peter travelled to and from Tamworth once every three months to discuss their financial affairs.

Peter noticed overtime that the couple was consistently spending more money than Peter considered as appropriate, and he convinced the couple to sign a Power of Attorney. This legal document enabled Peter to have legal control over the couple’s finances.

One day, Peter and Simon planned to go on a camping and hunting trip but Peter was confused about the location and so he went to couple's house for directions. When he arrived, Simon has already left, but Lisa was home. While at the house, Peter and Lisa started talking about their financial affairs and Lisa requested that Peter allow her to have more spending money. Peter denied the request and the two ended up in an argument.

The argument became heated, and Lisa pushed Peter to the ground. Peter became enraged and got up and pushed her back, causing her to fall over. He then walked out to his car and picked up a heavy rubber mallet. He walked back inside and saw that Lisa was sitting at the table facing the opposite direction.

Peter walked up and hit her on the side of her head with the mallet. He hit her head again with the mallet and then grabbed her head while holding her mouth and hit her another two times. Peter covered her mouth and nose to suffocate her and eventually Lisa died.

During Court, there were debates about Peter’s motive for killing Lisa. Peter said that Lisa was a gambling addict and that she increasingly became abusive towards Peter about the fact that he wanted to limit her spending. Peter said that he became “tired” of the abuse and the final argument was the “last straw”. He said that Lisa threatened to “take” Peter’s own money if he didn’t increase her spending limit and that this threat sent him into a “rage”.

However, the Judge said that Peter lacked credibility and that Peter’s testimony did not add up, particularly as it was unclear how Lisa was going take Peter’s money. The Judge said that ultimately it was unknown why he killed Lisa and there was more to the story than he had led on.

Peter was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

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Nurse suspended for 5 years for taking advantage of dying old man by putting herself in his Will

Website Image - Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia v Kumar (Review and Regulation) [2019] VCAT 1099.png
 

Mr Charles Jones (pseudonym) was admitted to Cambridge House nursing home for ‘respite care’ by his case manager and his neighbours. ‘Respite care’ is where the carer takes a break from looking after the person and another carer takes their place temporarily.

During Charles’ stay at Cambridge House, a nurse named Abha Kumar discovered that he owned a house worth over $1 million and that he did not have a Will. Abha also found out that he did not have any family or close friends. After 3 days, Abha began researching ways for Charles to make a Will and she purchased a Post Office Will Kit.

As Wills must be signed by a witness, Abha pressured a lower-ranking nurse at Cambridge House to be a witness. The nurse was distressed and anxious about the whole situation but caved anyway. As Charles had already signed, the nurse signed the Will without actually witnessing Charles himself sign. Further, Abha hid from the nurse the section in the Will which named Abha as a beneficiary.

A week later, Charles died.

Abha transferred Charles’ property into her name and later sold the property for $1,117,000 and kept the money for herself. Charles’ neighbours and friends found out what happened and 6 of them reported Abha to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia.

In broad brush-strokes, the law requires nurses to maintain professional boundaries between themselves and the person cared for and to avoid setting dual relationships. Nurses are to respect their colleagues by taking into account their views, feelings, preferences, attitudes and to not engage in manipulation. (References: Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (Victoria) Act 2009 (Vic); Code of Professional Conduct for Nurses in Australia; A Nurse’s Guide to Professional Boundaries; Registered Nurse Competency Standards)

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia held that Abha was overinvolved in the affairs of Charles, failed to manage a conflict of interest, and failed to consider the views and beliefs expressed by her colleagues. As a result, Abha was suspended for 5 years to practice as a nurse and other similar roles.

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Two men sentenced to death for eating a teenager

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In 1884, four seamen became stranded out at sea on a rowboat with no food or water. Three of these men were adults (Thomas Dudley, Edward Stephens, and Brooks) and one was a teenager (Richard Parker).

On the fourth day of being stranded, the seamen caught and ate a turtle and drank rainwater. On the eighteenth day, the seamen had not eaten for 8 days straight and not drank for 5 and they began discussing what should happen if this continues.

Thomas and Edward said that one of the seamen should sacrifice themselves as food for the others and Thomas further said that the person to sacrifice should be decided by random chance. Thomas and Edward later changed tact and said that the teenager should be sacrificed as he has no family, and he was likely to die first anyway. Brooks did not agree, and the teenager was not included in the conversation.

On the twentieth day, Thomas and Edward decided to kill the teenager. Thomas slit the teenager’s throat with a knife and he did not fight back as he was so weakened. Over the next four days, all three seamen ate the teenager and drank his blood.

On the twenty-fourth day, the three seamen were spotted by a passing-by boat and were rescued and taken ashore. When they reached land, Thomas and Edward were charged with murder.

In Court, their defence was that they killed the teenager out of necessity because they did not know when or if they were going to be rescued. They said that if they had no food, all four of the seamen were going to die and that they chose to sacrifice the teenager as he was going to die first anyway.

The Court held that necessity was not a defence to murder, and that the teenager did not consent to being killed. The Court held that there was no valid reason for choosing him and that they prayed on the teenager as he was the weakest. Thomas and Edward were found guilty of murder and were sentenced to death.

Further Reading

  • Case Name: Regina v Dudley and Stephens (1884) QBD 273

 
 
 
 

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Telstra fined $50 million for conning 108 Indigenous Australians

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Since 2016, Telstra sales staff continually targeted Indigenous Australians with deceitful sales tactics to sell mobile phones and other similar contracts. Telstra targeted people who spoke English as a second, third, or fourth language and who had difficulty reading and writing. The effect of this is that often these customers did not understand Telstra’s terms and conditions.

Telstra’s staff changed the prospective customer’s details so that their system would not automatically decline the customer’s applications. For example, Telstra’s staff changed the prospective customer’s residential address, Driver Licence number, and falsely stated that they were employed. The result is that Telstra’s system could not detect the person’s bad credit history or financial circumstances.

Telstra used a number of tactics to encourage the Indigenous Australians to sign up. For instance, Telstra did not explain how the plan worked, the consequences of going over data limits, created an impression that they would receive the mobile phone for “free”, or that music streaming would be “free”. Telstra took advantage of a cultural propensity for Indigenous Australian people to express agreement as a means of avoiding conflict.

108 Indigenous Australians were conned into contracts with Telstra and some even signed up to multiple contracts in a single day. The average costs of these contracts were $322 per month and some even went up to $786 per month. The average debt the customers owed was $7,461 and ranged from $1,600 to $19,524. Given many of these customers were unemployed, this was a substantial amount of money.

Telstra was held to have breached Schedule 2, Section 21 of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) for ‘Unconscionable conduct in connection with goods or services’. Telstra was fined $50 million. Telstra waved the debt and refunded the customers.

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Man high on marijuana sent to prison for mailing asbestos 52 times to embassies

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Savas Avan took large amounts of cannabis which caused a drug induced psychosis. During his psychotic episode, Savas believed he had discovered that asbestos was fire resistant, meaning, the material could not catch on fire or burn.

Savas believed that he had to let the world know about his discovery. During a police interview, he said that the “fabric’s good for firefighters” and “you can make blankets to help people in fires”. He said that he “wanted every country to know about it, because every country has fires”.

One day, Savas went to Australia Post carrying a bag with 16 envelopes and each envelope contained a zip-lock bag with asbestos inside. He paid $116.20 in postage and sent them to various embassies around Australia. A few days later, he did it again but this time with 38 parcels and paid $322.85 in postage. In total he mailed 52 packages containing asbestos.

Many of the embassies received the asbestos, however, luckily, none of them opened the zip-lock bag as the package contained various notes which said, “Asbestos sheets doesn’t burn * Must wear mask + gloves 4 dust pressed in cement” or “Asbestos dust pressed with cement must wear mask + gloves”.

The embassies were shut down for hours at a time and the staff members were inspected by authorities for exposure to asbestos. Nobody was harmed and the police recovered 47 of the 52 packages.

Savas was charged with ‘Causing a dangerous article to be carried by a postal or similar service’ under schedule section 471.13 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

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Scammer blackmailed parents of dying baby

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Jay and Deanne Windross were parents of their 11-month-old daughter, Amiyah. Amiya was in hospital dying from a neurological disease which caused her to have an ineffective swallow reflex. She required a stomach tube so that she could receive nutrients.

She had virtually no body tone, could not raise her head, suffered great physical discomfort, thrashing about constantly, and could sleep for only 15 minutes maximum at a time and only while being held by one of her parents.

Deanne used her phone as the main way to take photos and collect memories of her daughter. However, she did not back-up her phone and this meant that if she lost her phone, all those photos would be gone.

One day, Jay and Deanne were at the Chadstone Shopping Centre and Deane went to the bathroom taking her Samsung phone with her. She placed her phone on the toilet roll holder and accidentally left the bathroom with her phone still on the holder.

Soon after, she realised that he had left her phone in the bathroom and ran back to find it. However, the phone was gone. She called out to passers by in the hope that whoever picked up the phone would hear her pleas.

She went to the Telstra and Samsung stores to see if the phone could be tracked and she also went to the Chadstone Centre Management to see if the phone had been handed in. She called the phone a total of 105 times in the hope that the person who took the phone would answer. Unfortunately, all of Deanne’s attempts were unsuccessful.

Jay posted on his Facebook page their situation and offered a cash reward for whoever returned the phone. His post was picked up by a number of media outlets who widely publicised the appeal to locate the phone.

Siti Nurhidayah Kamal, the defendant, became aware of Jay and Deanne’s situation. Siti did not have their phone but decided to message Jay regardless claiming that she did. Throughout the following conversation, Siti did not have the phone at any point in time but the Windross’ thought that she did.

After Siti reached out to Jay, he described that was filled with hope. He wrote in response, “please put it in my letterbox. I’ll get my neighbour to check that it’s there and I’ll transfer you the money to wherever you want it”. Siti asked for $1,000 and said that if the money was not transferred, she would not give the phone to Jay. Jay said, “my baby is in her last minutes … can we discuss this tomorrow, she’s about to leave us”.

A few hours later, Siti asked Jay how the money would be transferred. Jay wrote, “I don’t know yet. I can’t think at the moment. My baby isn’t going to last out the night. What do you suggest”. Siti responded with, “please transfer me money I will return you the phone or maybe I just sell it … I hope you can help me … you maybe help me today god may help you”.

The next morning, Amiyah passed away while being held in her parent’s arms.

That same morning, Siti sent jay a message saying, “please I’m begging you I don’t want to sell and erase all of your memory I pro mise you I’m an honest person”. Jay responded with, “please don’t erase anything our baby passed away in our arms early this morning you have our memories of her please let us have some rest and then we will organise something I promise”.

Even after Siti learned of Amiyah’s death, she continued to berede Jay for money and sent him a screenshot of her bank details. Jay wrote, “I am going to do it but I need to know that you have the phone and you are not just trying to get money out of me”. Jay also suggested a few ways to exchange the phone as he was in hospital with his recently dead daughter. Later, Siti responded with, “are you going to deposit or not”. In total, 160 messages were exchanged between Jay and Siti in 24 hours.

Jay and Deanne were traumatised by Siti’s behaviour and reported her to the Police. Two days later Siti was arrested and charged with blackmail. In the court judgment, Judge Gaynor wrote that she found Siti’s behaviour “so reprehensible as to be amoral. I regard the objective gravity of this offending and [her] moral culpability to be of the highest order.”

Siti pleaded guilty to blackmail and was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment. The Windross’ never found the phone.

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Youth gangs fight with Samurai swords over girl

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In around 2005, there were a series of youth gangs in Melbourne Victoria. This case involved the gangs named “SNK”, “Little Fitzroy”, “Young Richmond” and “Old Richmond”.

Hieu Huu Nguyen, the accused, and a group of other SNK members approached Hai Nguyen from Little Fitzroy to arrange a fight between the two groups. SNK and Little Fitzroy were in conflict because a member from SNK had been making romantic advances to Hai’s girlfriend.

The next day, Hieu picked up a number of SNK members and collected a bag of weapons including at least three Samurai swords, machetes, knives, and metal poles. Hieu himself possessed a 30cm Samurai sword. Little Fitzroy also gathered weapons including machetes, Samurai swords, poles and baseball bats. Tuan Mai, the Little Fitzroy leader, possessed a full-size Samurai sword.

SNK and Young Richmond were first to arrive at Fitzroy Gardens and Old Richmond later arrived unarmed to observe the fight. Some time after, Little Fitzroy arrived and SNK and Young Richmond charged towards them. It was estimated that there were between 30 and 70 members of SNK and between 10 and 15 members of Little Fitzroy.

Tuan led Little Fitzroy against SNK and Young Richmond and when the groups collided, Hieu attempted to stab Tuan with his 30cm Samurai sword with an underhand movement aimed at the stomach region. Tuan took a step backwards and then produced his full-size Samurai sword, initially holding it by his side.

For a second time, Hieu attempted to stab Tuan with his sword in an underhand movement aiming at the stomach. Tuan stepped back but this time responded by swinging his own Samurai sword at Hieu and missed. Hieu for a third time attempted to stab Tuan with his sword but Tuan then put both hands on his full-size sword and swung at Hieu's head.

Hieu raised his left hand in a reflex to protect his head and ducked, but he was horrifically injured when his hand was completely severed at the wrist. He screamed with pain and fell to the ground. SNK and Young Richmond then ran away with Little Fitzroy chasing them.

Two of the SNK members took Hieu to St Vincent's Hospital. Police searched for and recovered the Hieu’s hand a short time later and took it to St Vincent's where it was surgically reattached. There had been numerous members of the public present in Fitzroy Gardens at the time of the incident, including picnickers and joggers and others attending a seminar at the nearby Dallas Brookes Hall, many of whom would have been alarmed and no doubt traumatised by these events.

Hieu pleaded guilty to (1) affray and (2) attempting to cause serious injury intentionally and was sentenced to 2 years imprisonment. Tuan pleaded guilty to (1) affray and (2) recklessly causing serious injury and was sentenced to 2.5 years imprisonment.

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Case studies

 

Lawyer faked progress on client's case for 2.5 years

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Mr Jones was assaulted at his workplace and he sought Mr Giovanni Mirabella as his lawyer to sue for personal injury. Mr Mirabella told Mr Jones that he would receive a minimum of $100,000 for his personal injury claim.

Mr Mirabella told Mr Jones that he had subpoenaed documents, served papers on the opposition, sought advice from a barrister, and was in the process of organising the court date. However, he did not do any of those things.

Mr Mirabella told his client that there was an upcoming mediation. He told him after the alleged mediation that the opposition did not want to settle and that they wanted to proceed to court. However, there was no mediation.

Later, Mr Jones travelled into the city for the alleged court case. Mr Mirabella met Mr Jones at a nearby café and told him that the law had changed. He advised that another Government department would handle the matter and he would receive a cheque in the mail. However, there was no court case and the law had not changed.

Mr Mirabella made his assistant create a fake file note for their firm’s records. On the file note, the assistant wrote: “John – I am begging just give this to Cabone - this week”, “No application has been issued? how can you have issued subpoenas?”, “What barrister?” and “I have typed exactly what you said. We have done none of this. Why don’t you just give the file to Tony Cabone. I don’t understand what you are doing”.

Mr Mirabella carried on the matter for 2.5 years before Mr Jones found out. Mr Jones reported Mr Mirabella to the Legal Services Commissioner and he was found guilty of (1) Unsatisfactory Professional Conduct and (2) Professional Misconduct.

The Legal Services Commissioner found that there were two main contributing factors towards Mr Mirabella's behaviour. Firstly, Mr Mirabella had a long history of mental illness, namely, major depressive disorder. And secondly, Mr Mirabella was unfamiliar with personal injury law and did not know how to run Mr Jones’ matter.

Mr Mirabella was ordered to 12 months of legal supervision and was ordered to pay the Legal Services Commissioner’s legal fees totalling $9,500. By the time Mr Jones found out, too much time had passed and he could no longer sue his workplace for personal injury.

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Clinical psychologist banned from practice for sleeping with patient

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Mr Steven Spring, a clinical psychologist, provided couples therapy for Carolina Winters (fake name) and Tony Carter (fake name). Steven also provided individual therapy for Carolina.

Carolina received treatment from Steven for 5 months and during treatment, Carolina understandably disclosed highly personal matters about herself and about her husband Tony. After a few months, Carolina and Steven started an intimate and sexual relationship. Tony later found out about the relationship from emails between Carolina and Steven.

After Tony found out, he made a series of death threats to Steven. Steven disclosed to his other patients that he had received death threats and in light of this, he might need to suddenly cancel treatment. He also asked one of his patients for the contact details of a hitman.

The Psychology Board of Australia stated that Steven’s patients likely felt frightened by this information as they probably thought that a violent man may enter the room during their therapy sessions. Dr Varghese prepared a report about Steven's professional behaviour and stated that Steven had a disturbing lack of insight and a lack of empathy for his patients.

Steven was held liable for Professional Misconduct for having an intimate and sexual relationship with a patient and for disclosing personal information to his patients. He was banned from practising as a clinical psychologist for 2 years and 6 months and he was ordered to pay the Psychology Board of Australia’s legal fees.

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Debt collector fined $500,000 for harassment and misleading consumers

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Panthera Finance Pty Ltd repeatedly contacted three consumers for debts which they did not owe. For one of the consumers, Panthera contacted them a total of 47 times - 4 letters, 11 phone calls, 21 voicemail messages, 2 email messages and 9 text messages. As a result, Panthera was held liable for undue harassment.

For one of the three consumers, Panthera demanded that the consumer pay $100 to have their default listing removed from their credit history. However, the consumer was not on the default listing and even if the consumer was, they had the right to have their listing removed for free. Panthera was found held liable for misleading the consumer.

Panthera was ordered to (1) pay $500,000 in penalties, (2) pay $100,000 in legal fees for the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), and (3) was ordered to undergo an Australian Consumer Law compliance program.

Further Reading

  • Case Name: Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Panthera Finance Pty Ltd [2020] FCA 340

 
 
 
 

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Man shot neighbour to death after argument over barking dog

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Jason (the attacker) and Dwayne (the victim) were neighbours in a set of units. One night, Dwayne and his girlfriend were returning home to their unit and on their way they passed Jason's unit. Jason's dog started barking and Dwayne yelled “shut up” and then walked inside into his own unit with his girlfriend.

Jason’s step daughter, Jemma, walked out and over to Dwayne to confront him with a baseball bat. The two yelled at each other and soon after Jason walked over to Jemma and Dwayne with a 12gauge shotgun.

Jemma noticed the shotgun and then tried to remove it from Jason by pushing and pulling him and directing the gun downwards. During the physical struggle, the gun went off and shot Dwayne in the chest. Dwayne died from the gunshot.

Jason was charged with murder but offered a guilty plea of manslaughter. The prosecution accepted. In sentencing Jason, the court considered a range of factors. The factors which weighed against Jason included the fact that the gun was loaded and that he should have known this. Additionally, he should not have had a sawn-off shotgun in the first place. Lastly, the altercation took place in front of children.

Some factors which weighed in favour of Jason included the fact that he did not intentionally shoot Dwayne. While he acted dangerously by bringing a loaded gun, the struggle between Jemma and himself is what caused the gun to go off. Lastly, Jason pleaded guilty rather than going to trial and he expressed genuine remorse.

The maximum sentence for manslaughter is 20 years in prison and Jason was ordered to 6.

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Child prohibited from moving to different city with her mother

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The case of Cahan & Kafka [2019] FCCA 2421 (30 August 2019) provides an example of where a parent was denied their application to relocate the child to a different city. In this case, the mother received a job offer which would result in a substantial wage increase. However, the job was located in Sydney which would require her to move. Both parents were located in Melbourne. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

The Wife’s Submissions

The wife submitted to the Court that her new job would provide a significant advancement to her career. She also submitted that it would be impractical for her to live in Melbourne and fly between Sydney and Melbourne on a regular basis. She lastly submitted that she wanted to pursue a relationship with a man in Sydney. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

The Husband’s Submissions

The Husband submitted that if the Mother moved to Sydney with the child, the child would lose regular contact with the Father. If the father regularly visited the child in Sydney, the expenses would significantly increase due to flights and accommodation. Additionally, in the arrangement that the child alternated between Sydney and Melbourne, the child would spend large amounts of time travelling. Lastly, it would be impractical for the Father to move to Sydney as the Father is quite old and would find it difficult to find a new job. He also has no friends or family in Sydney, and does not own any property or have any history in Sydney. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

The Law⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

Section 60CA of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) holds that the best interests of the child is paramount. Additionally, the objects of the Act provides that one of the purposes of the act is to ensure ‘that children have the benefit of both of their parents having a meaningful involvement in their lives’. ⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣

The Judge’s Decision

The Court made the determination that the child was not to move to Sydney. The Court reasoned that it was impractical for the Father to fly between cities or for the Father to relocate and start his life afresh. Lastly, if the Mother relocated, the child would not have the same level of involvement and would in effect experience the loss of a father.

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Car hire company accused customer of theft. Customer sued for defamation and won $1,000

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Mr. Luke hired a car from a car-hire-company and Ms. Richardson was an employee of that company. Mr. Luke returned the car and Ms. Richardson later requested that he return to the office. When he arrived, she pointed out that the tyres had been replaced with older tyres and that he was responsible for it. ⁣

Mr. Luke became angry. For context, he said that his anger was due to his military background and his cultural heritage from Africa. He reacted to Ms. Richardson by speaking loudly and aggressively and accused her of being a racist. In response, Ms. Richardson also became angry and called him a "thief" and a "criminal". Sometime during this event, Mr. Luke threatened to kill her and burn her. ⁣ ⁣

The judge found on the evidence that the tyres were in fact swapped. However, there was no evidence that the tyres were swapped by Mr. Luke himself as other people had driven the car. While Mr. Luke was probably liable for breach of contract, this did not suggest that he stole the tyres or that he was a criminal. The court held that Ms. Richardson’s accusations that he was a "thief" and a "criminal" were defamatory. ⁣ ⁣

Mr. Luke would have been awarded $7,500, however, the judge disapproved of Mr. Luke's accusation that Ms. Richardson was racist. He accused her both during the event itself and during the court hearing. The court held there was no evidence of racism on Ms. Richardson’s behalf. Further, the judge disapproved of the fact that Mr. Luke had threatened to kill and burn Ms. Richardson. Mr. Luke was in the end awarded $1,000 in compensation.

Further Reading

  • Case Name: Luke v Richardson [2014] WADC 27

 
 
 
 

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Chiropractor fined $29,500 for making cancer cure claims

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Mr. Limboro was a chiropractor in Sydney. On his website, he made the following claims within some articles:⁣⁣

  • “Cancer is 100% preventable.” ⁣⁣

  • "... Another kind of cancer prevention that is believed to most effective and beneficial is chiropractic treatment.”⁣⁣

  • “By having a regular visit to a chiropractor, people can rest assured that are [sic] prevented from having cancer.”⁣⁣

  • “Chiropractic focuses on treating any misalignment in your posture (which mostly is in the spine) which is believed to be the cause of all diseases in the body, including cancers. When the posture problems are solved, the cancer can also be cured.”⁣⁣

During court, a medical expert reported, “...there is no credible evidence that: misalignment of the spine is a cause of any form of cancer; that chiropractic treatment can prevent any form of cancer; or that chiropractic treatment can cure or treat any form of cancer.” Further, the Chiropractic Board of Australia put out a statement which said that there was insufficient evidence that chiropractic methods can improve organic diseases or infections, "ADHD, autistic spectrum disorders, asthma, infantile colic, bedwetting, ear infections and digestive problems." ⁣⁣

Mr. Limboro argued that he had no idea that his articles made those claims because he outsourced his articles to another person. He also argued during cross-examination that he did not think his domain name, www.cancercuresydney.com.au, was misleading because the term 'cure' can also mean 'pickled'. Further, a witness of Mr. Limboro, who was also a chiropractor stated, “Chiropractic may or may not cure cancer, who knows? It is just medical dogma that says it can’t – we’re not allowed to say so. You don’t know, in 20 years’ time we’ll know that chiropractic does help.” ⁣⁣

The court held that Mr. Limboro was guilty of 1) advertising services in a misleading way, and 2) using testimonials in advertisements. He was fined $29,500. He was also held unfit to be a chiropractor and he was banned from practicing for 2 years.

Further Reading

  • Case Name: Health Care Complaints Commission v Limboro [2018] NSWCATOD 117

 
 
 
 

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Man who was accused of bad odour sued for defamation and won

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This is an old defamation case from England in 1769. Defamation is the area of law concerned with protecting a person's reputation. In this case, Mr. Monsley published the following letter:⁣⁣⁣⁣

"Old Villers, so strong of brimstone you smell,⁣⁣⁣⁣
As if not long since you had got out of hell ;⁣⁣⁣⁣
But this damnable smell I can no longer bear,⁣⁣⁣⁣
Therefore I desire you would come no more here ;⁣⁣⁣⁣
You old stinking, old nasty, old itchy old toad,⁣⁣⁣⁣
If you come any more, you shall pay for your board,⁣⁣⁣⁣
You'll therefore take this as a warning from me,⁣⁣⁣⁣
And never more enter the doors, while they belong to J. P.⁣⁣⁣⁣
- "Wilncoat, December 4, 1767."⁣⁣⁣⁣

The insinuation was that Mr. Villers' had a bad odor and had a disease. One of the judges said, "Nobody will eat, drink, or have any intercourse with a person who has the itch and stinks of brimstone; therefore I think this libel actionable, and that judgment must be for the plaintiff (Mr. Villers)."

Further Reading

  • Case Name: Villers v Monsley (1769) 95 E.R. 886

 
 
 
 

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Religious man convinced wife to commit suicide for life insurance money

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Mr. and Mrs. Morant were husband and wife. Mrs. Morant suffered from chronic back pain and depression. She also had 3 life insurance policies which totaled $1.4 million. The two were a religious couple. ⁣

During the case, some witnesses testified the following facts. Mrs. Morant's chronic back condition was causing her a lot of pain. Mr. Morant told her that she was in too much pain to be able to survive a religious event named the 'rapture.' The rapture is the event where believers, dead and alive, will rise and be sent to heaven to be with Christ. Mr. Morant said that he didn't want to see her in pain and so it would be better if she killed her self now and got it over and done with. He also told her that committing suicide wasn't a sin because the insurance money would be going towards the church. Mr. Morant told his wife that he was going to buy a property with the insurance money for when the raptures came so that there would be a safe place. He took her for a drive to the property he was planning to buy and said, "‘This is what I will buy with the insurance money when you’re gone.’”⁣

Prior to the suicide, they heard Mr. Morant on several occasions talk about another person's incident where the husband committed suicide and the wife received insurance money. He referred to it as a blessing and "an amazing and wonderful thing that [he] has done for [his wife] to leave her debt-free.”⁣

Mrs. Morant also made promises to many people that they would receive money upon her death. She was having doubts and so she bought a lottery ticket in the off chance that she won so that they could use that money instead of the money from her life insurance. Nevertheless, she additionally said, “I’m going to take my life and then Graham (Mr. Morant) will be happy. He’ll have the money. I’ll be out of pain and I’ll be gone.”

Lastly, they both went to Bunnings Warehouse and bought a petrol generator and they placed it in the back of the car. Later, Mrs. Morant committed suicide in the car by carbon monoxide poisoning produced by the petrol generator's fumes.⁣

Mr. Morant told the police that he had no knowledge of the insurance policies and had no knowledge of what the petrol generator was going to be used for. ⁣

The court held that his motivation for pressuring her to commit suicide was to receive the life insurance money. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison for 1) counseling suicide and 1) aiding suicide.⁣

Further Reading

 
 
 
 

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Scientists imprisoned for fabricating Parkinson's disease research

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Dr. Bruce Murdoch and Dr. Caroline Barwood were scientists at the University of Queensland. Dr. Murdoch wrote a journal article which stated that 20 patients with Parkinson’s disease had participated in their research study and that those who had speech problems had a noticeable improvement after undergoing a particular treatment. Dr. Barwood was the co-author and she claimed that she had an integral role in the study. ⁣

They submitted to the journal publishers that the article was free from falsification, fabrication, and plagiarism. They also submitted that they had approval from the ethics committee and that the participants gave their consent. The journal accepted their article and published it. The researchers then used this publication to apply for research grants. For example, they received funding from a Parkinson's disease charity. ⁣

The University of Queensland detected a host of issues with their research and conducted an investigation. After they suspected fraud, they then referred the matter to the Crimes and Corruption Commission (CCC).

The court held that the researcher's entirely made up the study. None of the research was real. Dr. Murdoch was held guilty of 1) fraud, 2) attempted fraud 3) falsifying records, 4) forgery, and 5) uttering a forged document. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison. Dr. Barwood was found guilty of 1) fraud, and 2) attempted fraud. She was sentenced to 2 years in prison. ⁣

The CCC found that the scientists had likely felt pressured to publish a large amount of research and also likely felt pressured to receive funding for research. Interestingly, this is the only criminal case of research fraud to exist in Australia.

Further Reading

  • Case Name: R v Murdoch [2016]; R v Barwood [2016]

 
 
 
 

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Guy on Facebook calls CEO a liar and is ordered to pay $182,700 in damages

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Ms. Reid was the CEO of Capital Football and Mr. Dukic was a local football coach. Mr. Dukic had posted about Ms. Reid on his Facebook wall 9 times over 2 years. He had around 400 friends and 5 to 25 people liked each post.

His posts insinuated that Ms. Reid is dishonest, a national disgrace, gender biased, a liar, is grossly incompetent, a despicable person, similar to a communist dictator, and a whole host of other defamatory insinuations.⁣

Ms. Reid sued him for defamation and claimed that his Facebook posts were "ridiculous" and completely false. However, she said that she became concerned that people were starting to believe him and that she was hurt by the people who 'liked' his posts. She also said that she became so emotionally distraught that it started to affect her home life with her partner. A witness in the case said that Ms. Reid was starting to become warn-down and was losing self-confidence. She eventually resigned as CEO, however, she said her resignation was not related to Mr. Dukic's Facebook posts.⁣

Mr. Dukic did not turn up for court and so he had no defence. He was ordered to pay Ms. Reid $182,700 and he was banned from posting about her on Facebook again.

Further Reading

 
 
 
 

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Man spikes girl's drink and gets 18 months prison

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Mr. Kearsley was a Professor of Radiation Oncology and Director of Radiation Oncology at the Cancer Care Centre at St George Hospital. The Victim was a junior medical practitioner and previously worked with Mr. Kearsley.⁣


When Mr. Kearsley's wife was out of town, he requested a dinner invitation with the victim to talk about her career advancement. She accepted the invitation. During dinner, the victim left for the bathroom and he put a tablet of Ativan in her red wine. Ativan is used for anxiety treatment. After a while, the victim said that she started to feel dizzy and Mr. Kearsley told her to lie down. He then attempted to have sex with her but she refused and left the house. The next day, she went to the doctor and the doctor administered a test which showed positive for anxiety medication.⁣


Mr. Kearsley was found guilty of 1. Administering intoxicating substance with intent and 2. Indecent Assault. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Further Reading:

 
 
 
 

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Nurofen fined $6,000,000 for misleading the public

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Nurofen had 4 different pain relief products which claimed to target different types of pain. The products claimed to target ‘migraine pain’, ‘tension headache’, ‘period pain’ and ‘back pain’. Another product, Nurofen Zavance, claimed to absorb "up to twice as fast as standard Nurofen." On Nurofen’s website, they included a feature to ‘help’ people choose which Nurofen product was right for them. From 2011 to 2015, they sold around 5.9 million products and earned around $45,000,000. ⁣


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The Court held that each of the ‘targeted’ pain products were identical, and they all contained 200mgs of ibuprofen. Further, the 'targeted' products were nearly twice the price as standard Nurofen. The court held that the products did not in fact target different types of pain in different ways and that all products treated the pain in the same way. Lastly, the court held that the product Nurofen Zavance had no evidence that it absorbed more quickly than their other products. ⁣


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Nurofen was fined $6,000,000 for misleading and deceptive conduct.

Further Reading:

 
 
 
 

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