Lam Quoc ‘Chops’ Ta, Adam Magill co-accused, walks free for $162,000 Legal Aid fraud

A convicted drug trafficker and co-accused of lawyer Adam Magill has walked free from court despite admitting to defrauding Legal Aid of $162,000.

Lam Quoc “Chops” Ta, 34, walks free from Brisbane District Court. Picture: Tara Croser.

A convicted drug trafficker and co-accused of lawyer Adam Magill has walked free from court after pleading guilty to defrauding Legal Aid of $162,000 he paid to Magill’s law firm.

Lam Quoc “Chops” Ta, 34, a scaffolder from Logan Reserve south of Brisbane, was in the Brisbane District Court on Friday before Judge Michael Burnett who described his crime as relatively sophisticated.

Ta admitted he defrauded taxpayer-funded Legal Aid by allegedly sending Mr Magill’s office falsified pay slips from his brother Cuong Ta’s company Skydeck Scaffolding, purporting to show Lam and his brother Piet “Bruce” Luan Ta earned a pittance, which Mr Magill is alleged to have submitted to get Legal Aid funding.

Legal Aid allegedly paid Mr Magill a total of $324,000 to defend the two men at their trial on drug trafficking charges, and the brothers also allegedly paid Mr Magill $100,000 each for his work defending them.

The District Court heard that the scheme was allegedly developed in around November 2013 after Piet Ta consulted with solicitor Mr Magill who allegedly told him that his defence of drug trafficking charges at trial “was going to be an expensive exercise”.

Mr Magill is alleged to have told Piet Ta that “he didn’t want to destroy (Piet) financially for personal reasons”.

Crown Prosecutor Sarah Farnden told the court that Piet Ta and Mr Magill allegedly discussed “essentially making the legal funding cheaper for them by paying a portion to Mr McGill in money and then having Legal Aid representation as well”.

Both brothers were later convicted of trafficking in cocaine, ice, heroin and cannabis.

Lam Ta was sentenced in December 2015 to seven years imprisonment with parole eligibility about two years later for the trafficking.

Investigators did not learn of Lam Ta’s Legal Aid fraud until after Lam Ta’s conviction for drug trafficking the court heard.

In court on Friday Lam Ta pleaded guilty to a single charge of dishonestly gaining a benefit for Bell Miller Pty Ltd (trading as Lawler Magill Lawyers) between November 21, 2013 and July 17, 2016.

Ms Farnden dropped a serious charge of money laundering as part of a plea deal with Lam Ta.

She told the court that the case of Piet Ta, a co-accused on the charge of defrauding Legal Aid, was still “at the mention stage”, and there was “no indication” of how he would plead to the charges.

Judge Burnett told the court that co-accused Mr Magill’s charges were also yet to be dealt with.

“It wasn’t simply a case of you making a mistake,” Judge Burnett told Mr Ta.

“You set out on a scheme to defraud Legal Aid knowing full well that there were limits on the way in which funding was permitted,” he said.

Adam Magill. Picture: Jono Searle

He told Mr Ta that Legal Aid funding was supposed to go to “indigent persons within our community” but they had been fooled by his fake pay slips.

“Legal Aid depend upon the authenticity of the documents that are submitted to them, in order to make proper decisions,” Judge Burnett said.

“Understandably, they can’t audit and examine every submission made,” he said.

However Judge Burnett conceded that Mr Ta was unaware at the time he emailed Mr Magill the falsified pay slips that the fraud was going to be worth as much as $162,000.

Mr Ta’s barrister Damian Walsh told the court that his client had not offended since he was released from prison for his drug trafficking on December 4, 2017.

Mr Ta’s brother Cuong Ta – who “manufactured” the false pay slips from family business Skydeck Scaffolding – pleaded guilty to one count of fraud and two counts of fraudulently falsifying a record and was fined $6000 in the Brisbane Magistrates Court on September 2, 2020.

Judge Burnett sentenced Mr Ta to a wholly-suspended two years’ jail, after taking into account the 58 days he spent in prison between March and May last year after he was charged.