Ex-Qantas pilot Nathaniel John Whitehall sentenced for practising as a lawyer without a licence
In what could be compared to a real-life version of the TV drama ‘Suits,’ a troubled former Qantas pilot has been punished for acting as a fake lawyer.
In scenes akin to TV drama ‘Suits’ which centred around a young fake lawyer, a disgraced former pilot has been punished in court for acting as a qualified solicitor.
Although, 55-year-old Nathaniel John Whitehall had quite a bit more life experience under his belt than Suits’ college dropout ‘Mike Ross’ when he committed the offences.
In 2018, Qantas learned the bombshell revelation that Whitehall had been abusing large amounts of strong opioids while flying globally for them.
He was stripped of his medical clearance after 20 years in the industry, but successfully overturned the ruling in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Today, Downing Centre Local Court heard he chose to “move in a new direction” by attempting to become a lawyer in the Central Coast.
But he jumped the gun with his new career, practising before he got his legal licence.
Whitehall was sentenced for three counts of engaging in a legal practice while unqualified and five counts of an unqualified entity engaging in legal practice.
The court heard he acted in the false capacity as a lawyer by appearing in Belmont Local Court on behalf of a “client” for a dispute with Transport NSW as well as witnessing, signing and preparing several wills.
During sentencing submissions, a self-represented Whitehall told the court he reaped “no gain, no benefit at all” from the crimes.
“I was, in some cases, just simply helping out a friend of a colleague,” he said.
Prosecutor David Viney told the court these matters are treated “seriously, for good reason” because unqualified people acting as solicitors “place their clients in a very difficult position” and could “cause them harm” due to leaving them uninsured.
“I also ask the court to take into account firstly (Whitehall’s) lack of contrition,” Mr Winey said, noting he defended the charges but was found guilty.
Magistrate Juliana Crofts accepted Whitehall did not benefit from the offences, which would make it “difficult for him to move forward and work as solicitor or conveyancer”.
“The instances themselves were small and discreet and in many cases some charges overlapped with each other, namely the four matters relating to (one victim) where four offences occurred out of the same factual scenario,” she said.
But she said there could have been “serious implications” for his fake clients.
“Whitehall did not give any of the people in this matter protection,” Magistrate Crofts said.
“I consider he has good prospects of rehabilitation but I am concerned for his lack of contrition and the way the matter was run before court seems to indicate a lack of understanding of the seriousness of these offences and what they represent”.
Whitehall was sentenced to a 12-month community correction order and fined a total of $4,500 for the eight offences.