Paul Pisasale-linked barrister Sam Di Carlo fights suspension

A suspended and bankrupt Queensland barrister who is awaiting trial on a corruption charge related to former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale, has debts totalling more than $1m, a tribunal has heard.

Barrister Sam Di Carlo outside court

A suspended and bankrupt Queensland barrister who is awaiting trial on a corruption charge related to former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale has debts totalling more than $1m, a tribunal has heard.

Sam Di Carlo appeared in a Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal hearing on Monday where he has applied to overturn the Queensland Bar Association’s decision to refuse to renew his practising certificate in October on the basis he was not a fit and proper person.

The tribunal has heard that Di Carlo told the QBA that he owed corrupt ex-mayor Paul Pisasale’s brothel madam, Choonhwa “Pam” Lee about $650,000, with interest and costs.

He was found by the District Court to have failed to repay a $290,000 loan from Ms Lee.

Di Carlo filed an appeal in this District Court case before he filed for bankruptcy in August this year.

Di Carlo – who has been a barrister for 33 years – is also alleged to have an outstanding debt to the Australian Taxation Office of $398,329, and to have failed to pay a substantial amount of tax for at least two years.

The tribunal also heard that Di Carlo had also racked up a personal legal bill of $600,000 for defending himself on the corruption charge.

Barrister Daniel O’Gorman KC, for Di Carlo, submitted that his client’s tax debt did not constitute a flagrant disregard of his obligations and was unfortunate.

Mr O’Gorman told Justice Thomas Bradley that Di Carlo’s problems all started when the Crime and Corruption Commission “came knocking”, and when he was charged in August 2017.

The QBA has accused Di Carlo of five failures, including failing to pay any substantial tax in recent years, failing to disclose in 2018 to the QBA that he had been found guilty of contempt in 2017, and failing to disclose last year his mental health difficulties that caused him to be hospitalised for nine days.

Another failure alleged by the QBA is that Di Carlo failed to disclose to them last year that the one of his former clients had lodged a complain against him related to alleged receipt and misuse of trust money with the Legal Services Commissioner, and that he further failed to tell the QBA that the LSC had told him they intended to start a disciplinary proceeding against him in relation to this complaint.

Di Carlo argues the alleged disclosure failures were unintentional, and in relation to not disclosing his mental health difficulties Mr O’Gorman told the tribunal his client regretted not having disclosed something he should have disclosed.

Di Carlo is awaiting a criminal trial in the District Court on a single charge of giving or offering a benefit to a public officer, and two counts of perjury.

His trial is listed for pre-trial hearing on December 12 and two-week trial on February 17.

Mr O’Gorman told the tribunal this charge was expected to be resolved either in a few weeks’ time or alternatively in February.

Originally published as Paul Pisasale-linked barrister Sam Di Carlo fights suspension