Gregory John Ryan uses ‘Sovereign Citizen pseudo law’ in council rates court appeal

A Qld man who dragged his unpaid rates bill through three levels of court and falsely accused a judge of “treason” claims his local council should instead pay HIM a staggering amount.

A Fraser Coast man has had his latest attempt to refuse to pay his outstanding council rates struck out, with the Court of Appeal labelling the case an “abuse of process”.

A Queensland man tried to use Sovereign Citizen rhetoric to fight his local council over unpaid rates, falsely accusing a lawyer and judge of crimes, Court of Appeal documents reveal.

Gregory John Ryan was attempting to appeal a District Court ruling that had already refused to allow an appeal of a Magistrate’s 2024 decision upholding a judgment against him.

He was also asking for $2.3 million in court costs from the Fraser Coast Regional Council.

The recently published court documents show Mr Ryan’s latest application was fundamentally deficient and based on “Sovereign Citizen pseudo-law”.

“The application for leave to appeal, on its face, is so deficient that it constitutes an abuse of process,” Court of Appeal President Debra Mullins said in the documents.

“It fails to disclose the grounds for the application and seeks relief that is improper and offensive.

“I pointed this out to the applicant during the hearing to give him an opportunity to address the matter.

“It was not addressed in a satisfactory way.

“Instead, I was the recipient of a tirade about the court having unclean hands and being ‘a money-making racket’ and a question being asked about whether the court was creating bonds and holding the applicant as security for the bonds.

Mr Ryan also demanded $2.3 million in costs as part of his appeal.

“Among the applicant’s grounds for appeal were claims that the state government is a private corporation, that courts have created ‘bonds’ using his name in capital letters, and that he, as a ‘beneficiary,’ is not liable for the rates debt because the government should have served a ‘trustee’ instead.”

It was noted Mr Ryan had not filed a proper affidavit and failed to outline any lawful grounds for the appeal.

“(He also asked that the) solicitor who appeared in the courts below for the respondent, ‘Be arrested for perjury, extortion, fraud and possibly treason,’ and paragraph eight seeks relief against the District Court judge, that his Honour, ‘Be arrested for fraud, coercion and treason and breaches of various other acts relating to impartiality (in his case, lack of) and failure of fiduciary duty’.

“Where the judgment that was obtained by the respondent in the Magistrates Court was for unpaid rates and was less than the minimum amount of a minor civil debt claim, namely $25,000, it is apparent that the applicant is not using the processes of the court appropriately to seek leave to appeal from the district court judge’s refusal of leave to appeal from the Magistrate’s decision given on October 3, 2024.

“The order is application for leave to appeal, filed on May 30, 2025, is struck out as an abuse of process.”

According to the documents, during the proceedings, Mr Ryan repeatedly interrupted claiming he hadn’t given all his evidence and at one point said, “how dare you”? to the President of the Court of Appeals when he was referred to as “Mr” and after handing down the decision, the President ordered the videolink be discontinued, ending the session.

Originally published as Gregory John Ryan uses ‘Sovereign Citizen pseudo law’ in council rates court appeal