Lawyer Shaune Irving struck off, deemed ‘permanently unfit’ to practise law

A disgraced criminal lawyer who lied to a corruption probe and admitted laundering his criminal clients’ dirty cash at a prominent Queensland law firm has been struck off the legal roll.

Shaune Irving at Brisbane Magistrate’s Court. Picture: NewsWire / Sarah Marshall

A disgraced criminal lawyer who was brought down after he lied to a corruption probe and admitted laundering his criminal clients’ dirty cash at a prominent Gold Coast law firm has been struck off the legal roll for misconduct.

Shaune Kerry Irving, who used to work for Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied Lawyers, was found guilty of professional misconduct by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Friday, May 30.

In his written decision, Justice Martin Burns described Irving’s conduct as “reprehensible”, which Irving accepted was accurate.

Irving was given three wholly-suspended jail sentences after he was convicted of perjury, attempting to pervert justice, fraud, money laundering, supplying cocaine and making false declarations.

“It has not only brought shame on himself, it has damaged the reputation of the profession,” Justice Burns wrote in his QCAT decision on Friday, adding Irving was “permanently unfit to practise”.

“The public are not only entitled to expect a high degree of integrity from legal practitioners, they are entitled to expect that legal practitioners will obey the law. The respondent failed to do so on multiple occasions over a protracted period,” he wrote.

In the District Court last year Irving admitted he pocketed $15,500 cash meant to go to the law firm’s trust account from clients, and he laundered $13,050 in drug cash from a drug trafficker client.

Irving surrendered his practising certificate and he did not seek to persuade QCAT that he was now fit to practise, due to his recovery.

Shaune Irving (walking the dog) following an appearance at Brisbane’s District Court. Picture: NCA Newswire / Dan Peled

He submitted to QCAT that he has been gradually reintegrating into the workforce under the supervision of his psychiatrist, but does not intend to return to practice law.

He “fully co-operated” in the investigation by the Crime and Corruption Commission, the decision states.

QCAT was told that Irving had a significant history of mental illness which included a chronic and severe post-traumatic stress disorder from when he served in the army in Iraq, Afghanistan and East Timor.

“The psychological conditions with which the respondent was afflicted went largely undiagnosed and certainly untreated until after the conduct that resulted in his criminal convictions,” the decision states.

Irving was sentenced to a suspended six month jail term after he pleaded guilty to three charges of supplying cocaine on multiple occasions in November and December 2019 – including one at a ritzy Fortitude Valley rooftop bar with friends.

The CCC surveilled him when he was supplying the drugs, the decision states.

He was sentenced to a one-year suspended jail term after he pleaded guilty to two counts of making a false statutory declaration in relation to a speeding fine he got on the morning of May 20, 2019.

His then girlfriend Lauren Kate Kruger pleaded guilty to making a false declaration that she was the driver of Mr Irving’s Mercedes-Benz that was busted speeding along Milton Rd in Auchenflower.

She was fined $5000 and ordered to perform 240 hours of community service. Convictions were recorded.

Irving was also sentenced to two years jail wholly suspended after he was convicted of a single count of fraud after he pocketed $15,500 in cash payments from nine clients of MMA Lawyers between 14 August 2019 and 17 February 2020.

He was due to have deposited the cash into the trust account of MMA Lawyers.

He was given a one-year wholly-suspended sentence for money laundering for receiving $13,050 in legal fees from a drug dealer client, knowing the cash was from drug sales.

Irving put the cash in the MMA Lawyers trust account.

He also got a three-year wholly suspended sentence for perjury after he knowingly lied to a secretive hearing of the CCC on 8 January 2020, by claiming he had never received cash payments from a client without depositing those payments into the trust account of MMA Lawyers.

He also got a two-year wholly-suspended sentence after he was convicted of one count of attempting to pervert justice for telling Ms Kruger to give false evidence to the CCC about their relationship status, her house and his involvement in criminal activities.