Secret texts, cashies and mystery exits: Inside colossal scandal that brought down high-flying lawyer Michael Bosscher

Michael Bosscher was a high-flying Brisbane lawyer with big name clients. But in the winter of 2016, a major scandal erupted that sent the George St rumour mill into overdrive and ended in his jailing. This is the inside story.

The indepth story behind the downfall of high profile lawyer Michael Bosscher

In the winter of 2016 the notorious westerly winds that tear through Brisbane’s CBD each August carried with them whispers of a colossal scandal at one of the city’s most renowned law firms.

Timothy Meehan, a solicitor at the top of his game who had represented the likes of Daniel Morcombe’s killer, was suddenly gone without warning or explanation.

The George Street rumour mill went into overdrive - was he sick, burnt out, having family issues, had there been a falling out with his long time business partner Michael Bosscher?

The true reason would be more shocking than any of the gossip, exposing corruption and fraud within the top law firm, outing a senior partner’s affair with his young law clerk, leaving reputations in tatters, destroying multiple legal careers, and landing both Meehan and Bosscher in prison alongside the clients they once represented.

Michael Bosscher and Tim Meehan were once the defence team for Daniel Morcombe’s killer - Brett Cowan. Photo: Steve Pohlner

Seven years, three months and 11 days after Meehan’s sudden disappearance from the legal fraternity, the saga came to an abrupt end on Monday night when Michael Frederick Bosscher was found guilty of aggravated fraud 26 days after his trial first began.

The highly sought-after lawyer with his trademark moustache whose client roster once included notorious bikies and murderers was led to the cells by two Corrections officers to spend the first of what will likely be many nights in custody.

The verdict made Bosscher the fourth, final and most significant scalp of a years-long Crime and Corruption Commission investigation into Bosscher Lawyers, the firm that one top silk described as being the place at which every lawyer had once aspired to work.

Meehan played a crucial role in convicting his former mentor turned business partner, spending five days on the witness stand in Court 35 of the Brisbane District Court detailing how Bosscher had concocted a plan to take cash payments from clients.

High profile lawyer Michael Bosscher leaves the Brisbane Watch House after his arrest. Picture: Lachie Millard

The pair had both been declared bankrupt after their previous firm Ryan and Bosscher went bust and Meehan said the “cashies” at their new business were a way to “top up” their income without having to pay creditors 50 cents for every dollar they earned over $70,000.

Meehan claimed that between 2011 and 2016, he, Bosscher and another lawyer Alexander Ralston Jones had split thousands of dollars of cash payments from clients, saying they would regularly leave stacks of money in each other’s office.

He gave dozens of examples of how the scheme operated, including giving evidence the trio had split part of a $250,000 cash payment handed over in a garbage bag by a drug trafficker for an associate’s murder trial.

He claimed on another occasion they shared tens of thousands of dollars delivered to the office by a client in a wine box.

Michael Bosscher and Alex Jones outside court for the sentencing of Brett Cowan. Photographer: Liam Kidston.

Text messages exchanged between the lawyers during that time were shown to the jury in which they discussed leaving cash for each other.

In one exchange, Jones wrote “Presents under your keyboards boys” and Meehan responded “Lovely”.

In another, Jones wrote “keyboard mate” and Meehan replied “Love your work Jonesy!”.

Jones replied “nothing to get excited about mate …..haha, just a small fish” and Meehan wrote back “still nice”.

On another date, Bosscher wrote “top drawer” and Meehan replied “Thanks mate”.

The scandal erupted when Tim Meehan was suddenly sacked.

But it all came to a crashing halt on August 16, 2016 when Meehan was summoned for a meeting with Jones, Bosscher and his wife Alison who was the firm’s legal practice director.

Alison was not charged and is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Meehan was accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the firm and sacked.

The court heard that Xanthe Larcombe-Weate, a young law clerk with whom the married father had been having an affair, was also accused by the partners of involvement in the alleged theft and fired the same day.

She has never been charged with any wrongdoing.

Former star Queensland defence lawyer Tim Meehan with his former legal firm’s former clerk, Xanthe Larcombe-Weate, who is now his wife.

Weeks later on Wednesday September 7, 2016, the whispers of a scandal at Bosscher Lawyers became a roar when The Courier-Mail hit newsstands.

The front page story revealed Bosscher Lawyers would be taking legal action in court that day seeking to freeze Meehan’s assets amid allegations he had stolen more than $160,000 from the firm.

The front page from 2016.

Meehan himself was put under the microscope while giving evidence at Bosscher’s trial, conceding the article was how his then-wife learned the real reason he had been given for being sacked, and of his affair with his law clerk, to whom he is now married.

A week after the story broke, Meehan went to the CCC and gave a lengthy statement over several days alleging that he, Bosscher and Jones had all taken cash payments from clients. Ultimately, Meehan pleaded guilty to aggravated fraud that a judge accepted was in excess of $200,000 and he was sentenced in July 2017 to 5.5 years’ jail with parole eligibility after serving 18 months in prison.

He was one of four witnesses who were given a reduced sentence in exchange for giving evidence against Bosscher at his trial.

Alex Jones was facing the same charges as Bosscher but The Courier-Mail can now reveal that he pleaded guilty to a significantly lesser charge the same day their joint trial had originally been due to start on September 4 this year.

Jones, who is still a practising lawyer, pleaded guilty in September to a charge of fraud for dishonestly avoiding tax on about $30,000 of cash ‘bonuses’ he received off the books.

He was fined $15,000, ordered to perform 200 hours of community service, and no conviction was recorded.

The court heard his sentence was also reduced in exchange for giving evidence at the trial.

In his closing address to the jury, the self-represented Bosscher said Meehan and Jones had fundamentally opposed each other “on a really crucial amount of serious and significant evidence” during their time on the witness stand.

Bosscher lashed Meehan as a “liar”, arguing he had made up the allegations about widespread cash payment to “save his own bacon” after being sacked for stealing.

But he urged the jury to largely accept the evidence of Jones whom he described as having everything to lose as a married father of four who still had a good prospect of keeping his thriving legal career.

“He’s a fairly young fella, with a young family, a new (legal) practice, he got off with a deal, plain and simple,” Bosscher told the jury.

“Plead guilty to this amended indictment, plead guilty on this set of facts, agree to give evidence, and he did do that.

“And I’ve got to be honest with you, I’m an old fella now but if I had to be in his shoes I can hardly blame him.”

“I’d like to be angry with him, I’d like to feel a bit about him like I do about Tim but I can’t.”

Also caught up in the CCC probe was former law clerk Thomas William Strofield who was handed an 18-month probation order in September 2021 after he pleaded guilty to a charge of fraud as an employee for misappropriating more than $10,000 from the firm.

A conviction was also not recorded in his case.

Thomas William Strofield. Photo: Richard Gosling

Strofield, the son of a respected Queensland magistrate, was four units away from completing his law degree when he resigned from the firm in 2016.

His sentencing hearing was told he had been “demoralised and devastated” by the saga.

The court heard over a period of 12 months, Strofield had misappropriated payments worth $10,300 from four clients, with the judge accepting he gave “significant portions” of that cash to his principals and kept between $2400 and $5100 for himself.

“I do accept the environment in which you were employed as law clerk is one where you were influenced, encouraged and tasked by principal lawyers in doing what you did,” Judge Dean Morzone told him.

Strofield also gave evidence at Bosscher’s trial about how he was tasked by his bosses with collecting cash from clients, sometimes driving to their home or workplaces to fetch fees.

Meehan’s now wife and former law clerk Xanthe Meehan, formerly Larcombe-Weate, an indemnified witness, gave evidence about a “rampant cash culture” at Bosscher Lawyers under which she said staff would boast about collecting cash.

Dozens of witnesses were called to give evidence during the five week trial including former staff of the firm and the clients who made the cash payments.

Michael Bosscher out the front of the jail where Gerard Baden-Clay was being held. Photo: Darren England.

Among them were high profile drug trafficker Paul Luu whom the court heard also got a reduced sentence in exchange for giving evidence.

Meehan told the court Luu had paid the firm hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash for representation for himself and a family member for drug related charges, and an associate Dallin James Kruithof who was ultimately convicted of murder.

Meehan said Luu had paid either $100,000 or $150,000 for his sister Catrina Hong Luu’s legal fees, paid in two instalments, the first of which “one of his runners” delivered to Meehan at his office.

He said he collected the balance “fairly late” on a Friday night at an address of one of Luu’s associates.

He said Luu paid about $100,000 for Kruithof’s committal hearing that he collected from his house about 3.30am on a weekday and that he was later given a garbage bag full of cash to pay the $250,000 fee for Kruithof’s murder trial.

Judge Leanne Clare SC told the jury that Meehan, Jones and Strofield earlier pleading guilty to criminal offences was not evidence of what Bosscher did or did not do.

Lawyer Michael Bosscher (left) back in the day.

“Furthermore, the basis on which those witnesses proceeded to their own sentence does not mean that what they pleaded to was all they did, it is not evidence that that was the full extent of their dishonesty,” she said.

“You are the judges of the facts. You’ve heard the evidence, not just the versions of those three witnesses. You’ve seen their text messages which were recovered from that time, the financial records, you’ve heard from the clients, you’ve got the admissions. Decide the facts on the whole of the evidence.”

Just after 4.30pm on Monday afternoon, the jury in Bosscher’s case retired to consider its verdict.

Michael Bosscher (L) with Peter Shields (centre) and Brendan Ryan. The other men have no involvement in the fraud case.

About an hour later, the bailiff was informed the six-man, six-woman jury had reached a unanimous verdict on all nine charges – one count of aggravated fraud and eight offences of falsifying documents.

By the time the parties had gathered back at Court 35, it was 5.56pm when Judge Clare ordered the jury be brought in to deliver its verdict – guilty on all counts.

Bosscher, who had conducted the trial from the bar table, stood in the dock for the verdict.

Crown Prosecutor Greg Cummings said he was prepared to proceed to sentence but Bosscher asked for an adjournment to allow time to seek legal representation.

“It seems inevitable that you will be imprisoned,” Judge Clare told him.

Bosscher replied: “Of course your honour, I don’t think anyone would make any submissions to the contrary.”

A date for sentence is yet to be set and the case will be mentioned again on Friday.