Inquiry call as dementia barrister David Rofe bleeds funds

Friends of a barrister with advanced dementia are pressing for an inquiry into the handling of his $30m estate.

Barrister David Rofe in his Sydney chambers.

Supporters and close friends of a prominent Sydney barrister with advanced dementia are pressing for a thorough inquiry into the handling of his $30 million estate amid revelations about highly ­unusual financial transactions.

Their concerns follow a series of reports by The Australian, ­including one about funds ­belonging to David Rofe QC running to many thousands of dollars being used to pay bills for a now-­estranged friend, Nick Llewellyn, at a Lebanese restaurant called ­Habibi in Sydney’s Surry Hills.

Mr Rofe, an 83-year-old barrister who needs full-time nursing at his eastern suburbs home, did not eat at Habibi, a modest restaurant with a cheap menu and two Shisha smoking pipes on the counter.

But he ultimately paid for Mr Llewellyn’s many dinner bills there over the years — which often ranged from $200 to $500 each at a restaurant that offered a $29 dinner voucher for two — as part of an unofficial arrangement in which Mr Rofe paid off Mr ­Llewellyn’s credit card debts.

Mr Llewellyn has ­received $2.5m from Mr Rofe and continues to receive $10,000 a month, and a $1-a-month rent deal for a $1.2m Gold Coast apartment, from people helping Mr Rofe with his ­finances.

The Australian has obtained an email from March 31, 2011, in which Mr Llewellyn told his friend Nick Illek how he (Llewellyn) and his partner, Curtis Hodges, needed to stop spending at Habibi restaurant as part of measures to curb credit card debts Mr Rofe was ­unhappy about as they spiralled out of control.

In the email, Mr Llewellyn told Mr Illek that he was enclosing American Express statements that did not include a recent $18,500 payment.

He added: “However, it seems that another $15k is due which DFR (Mr Rofe) is not pleased about.

“Now Curtis and I have to ­reduce these ridiculous $10k+ per month expenses. The first to go is Habibi Restaurant re pot and we are quitting this weekend.”

Despite his declared intentions in the email, Mr Llewellyn continued to spend thousands of dollars at Habibi for at least another two years at similar rates, according to American Express statements ­detailed in The Australian last month.

Asked about the email, and specifically what he might have meant by informing Mr Illek that “the first to go is Habibi Restaurant re pot and we are quitting this weekend”, Mr Llewellyn told The Australian he could not comment.

“I’m not a perfect human being. I don’t want to make any ­official comment, I’m not perfect, that’s all I can say,’’ he said.

Mr Llewellyn described ­Michael Habibi, the restaurant’s owner, as a friend, and said he stood by comments reported in The Australian last month that the owner of the BYO restaurant had often fetched alcohol and cigarettes for him, and then added the cost to the bill in round numbers.

When The Australian showed Mr Llewellyn’s email to Mr Habibi and asked him what he thought the reference to his restaurant might mean, Mr Habibi said: “I don’t know.”

Mr Habibi said he did not understand why Mr Llewellyn would make a reference to “pot”.

He remembered Mr Llewellyn, he said, because Mr Llewellyn “spent a lot of money (at) my restaurant”. But he had not seen Mr Llewellyn for more than a year.

Senior lawyers and friends from a close circle who have known Mr Rofe for many years are deeply concerned about the handling of his fortune, especially since a noticeable decline in health since his original dementia diagnosis in October 2010.

They are keen that those helping the elderly barrister co-operate with authorities in conducting a full audit of Mr Rofe’s estate spending over the past four to five years.

Revelations about Mr ­Llewellyn’s financial dependence on Mr Rofe — whom Mr Llewellyn says “is like a father to me” — ­follow a wider investigation by The Australian into how Fair Work Commission vice-president Michael Lawler and his partner, corruption whistleblower Kathy Jackson, have been entangled in a fight for control of Mr Rofe’s $30m estate.

Mr Lawler assumed a direct role in helping with Mr Rofe’s ­finances for more than a year, ­including buying a $1.35m house next to the Lawler-Jackson home at Wombarra, south of Sydney, and a $1.2m Gold Coast apartment for Mr Llewellyn, both on Mr Rofe’s behalf.

Mr Lawler and Ms Jackson are now living at the Rofe-owned Wombarra property, and paying weekly rent, after their own home next door was damaged by a fire in January.

Mr Lawler knew Mr Rofe many years ago when they worked at the same legal chambers. Ms Jackson, who met Mr Rofe three years ago, is named as the beneficiary in one of his wills to receive up to $3m.

It was Mr Llewellyn who first asked Mr Lawler and Ms Jackson for their help to reinstate him in Mr Rofe’s life when the elderly barrister had a dementia-related breakdown in late 2012, and was cut off from Mr Rofe by old Rofe associates and friends. Mr ­Llewellyn has since fallen out with the couple.

Mr Lawler had proper auth­ority to spend Mr Rofe’s money on his behalf and The Australian is not suggesting otherwise. He and Ms Jackson, while having no official role in Mr Rofe’s life, have ­recently visited him at his home in Sydney’s Woollahra. Their rent is paid to an administrator helping with Mr Rofe’s ­finances.

Mr Llewellyn continues to live at the Gold Coast apartment with his partner, Mr Hodges, and their dachshunds Ketchup and Truffles. A 20-year, $1-a-month rent deal for Mr Llewellyn looks to set to remain for now, but a review of financial arrangements for him is likely to focus on continuing $10,000 monthly payments from Mr Rofe’s estate.

Those $10,000 payments, formalised in 2013 when Mr Lawler was helping Mr Rofe with his ­finances, were meant to be contingent on Mr Llewellyn making regular visits to Mr Rofe at his home in Woollahra.

Mr Llewellyn is understood to want a review of orders that ­restrict his access.

Ruth Coleman, a former Rofe secretary who is helping with Mr Rofe’s affairs, said she was aware of “everything” related to Mr Rofe, Mr Llewellyn and the Habibi restaurant, but was not willing to comment.

She said Mr Rofe could not be discussed.

Asked if Mr Rofe was like a ghost, she said: “Yes, he’s a ghost.”