Behind The Lines: Bogus barrister Sarah Grasso’s elaborate web of lies
Sarah Grasso tricked family, friends, even legitimate lawyers, into believing she was a barrister by sneaking into uni lectures and faculty social events, and awarding herself fake degrees, leaving a manipulative trail of bounced cheques and debt in her wake.
Behind the Scenes
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Geoff Wilkinson, One of Melbourne’s most decorated police and justice journalists, returns with a new weekly interview with the men and women of Victoria Police.
Aspiring lawyer Sara Grasso’s marks in Year 12 were well short of the level required for admission to the law faculty at Melbourne University.
Classmates at Kildara College in Malvern recall her being told by a teacher she would “never be anything better than a hairdresser” like her father, Frank.
Undeterred, she repeated her HSC at Kilmaire College in Hawthorn the following year but again failed to make the grade.
“I’d give her 10 out of 10 for arrogance,” Det-Sgt Geoff Enright said.
Enright was the detective given the job of separating fact from fantasy in Grasso’s extraordinary life of lies.
The County Court was told in 1995 that Grasso had tricked her family, friends, genuine university students and legitimate lawyers for more than three years with her elaborate charade, which left the lives of some of her victims in ruins after she borrowed large amounts from them to save non-existent businesses she claimed to represent as a lawyer.
Desperate to please her parents and make them think she was successful, the bogus barrister acquired her knowledge of the law by attending lectures, tutorials and law faculty social functions. She also awarded herself sham university degrees, scholarships, trophies and plaques for achievements in law and Japanese language — despite not being able to speak Japanese!
She later told Enright the only thing stopping her from sitting for exams was not having a student number, and claimed she had worked “a heck of a lot of harder” than another law student who won a Rhodes Scholarship.
Grasso, now 54, pleaded guilty to 12 charges of fraud involving $660,000. She was sentenced to 3 ½ years’ jail, with a minimum term of 18 months, but with time already spent in custody was released on parole only six weeks later.
The highpoint of Grasso’s fantastic legal career — and the most brazen con — was a party at Melbourne’s Windsor Hotel to celebrate her admission to the Victorian Bar.
“She had planned to drive an imported Ferrari into the hotel and park it in the ballroom for the party,” Det-Sgt Enright recalls.
“The hotel management weren’t too keen on that idea, but then the deposit cheque bounced and she had to switch to Plan B. That involved her family arriving at the Windsor in a stretched white limo, but unfortunately the limo company was never paid either.”
Two young Melbourne University students spoke to the Windsor gathering with reverence about the mentor they had met in the university law library.
The next speech was by Grasso, the self-proclaimed new barrister, who told the 70 guests she
knew she looked repulsive in her brand new wig, “but never mind, this what I have to wear in court”.
“I thought that was a bit rich,” says Enright. “She bought the barrister’s wig, gown and jacket from the legal outfitters in Lonsdale Street for $1440, but that cheque bounced as well.”
One of Grasso’s former schoomates told the Herald Sun that in 1990 — only a few months after she finished school — Grasso told friends a wealthy Jewish lawyer friend had died, leaving her a villa in Florence, his legal practice in Collins St and a large amount of money.
“You’d see her driving the latest BMW, chattering away on her mobile phone and dripping in expensive jewellery. She’d tell you she had to jet off to Sydney for a business meeting that afternoon, then someone would see her in the street that afternoon in Caulfield.
“She started out with little fibs at school, then they just got bigger and bigger. Sadly, I think she finished up believing her own stories.”
Enright said a lot of Grasso’s knowledge of legal subjects, jargon and procedure was acquired at Melbourne University despite never being enrolled there. She was regularly seen in the university law library, and took notes while she sat in on lectures.
She was well enough known to pose with groups of students at a legitimate graduation ceremony, wearing a borrowed gown and carrying an empty degree cylinder for effect.
“She could certainly talk the talk,” Enright said. “She told me once, ‘If you’re on the dance floor, you dance ... you should see me on my feet”.
Enright said Grasso’s arrogance and determination to have her day in court was reflected in her decision to sack 10 separate Legal Aid lawyers whose advice to plead guilty did not coincide with her own legal opinion.
She represented herself at her committal hearing, but finally had the services of a genuine barrister when she pleaded guilty at her County Court plea hearing.
The official explanation for her behaviour was provided by psychologist Jeffrey Cummins, who said she suffered from delusions of grandeur, success and unlimited power, which typified her narcisstic personalty disorder. He told Judge John Hassett it was with a considerable degree of reluctance he expressed the view that Grasso was “quite significantly disturbed” and her prognosis was poor.
With her in the dock was her infant son, fathered by small-time crook Johnny Driscoll during a short stay at a South Yarra motel — which they left without paying the $1400 bill!
Enright, who is now close to retirement, arrested Grasso five times before she was finally remanded in custody and dealt with by the legal system. He has not heard of either of the pair or their son since, but still rates the case “the most bizarre I’ve been involved in, or even heard of, during my time in the force”.
Do you have a story for Geoff? Contact crime@heraldsun.com.au
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