Former top silk Norman O’Bryan charged over alleged $1.3m financial deception

A scion of the Australian legal establishment faces up to 10 years’ jail if convicted of stealing $1.3m by fraudulently billing out legal costs and providing allegedly false invoices.

Former lawyer and barrister Norman O'Bryan

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A scion of the Australian legal establishment faces up to 10 years’ jail if convicted of stealing $1.3m by fraudulently billing out legal costs and providing allegedly false invoices.

Norman John O’Bryan, 65, of Blairgowrie on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, will face Melbourne Magistrates Court in September on two fraud charges coming after the Banksia Securities class action scandal.

Victims of Banksia Securities were allegedly overcharged legal fees but the charge sheet does not draw the link with Banksia.

Mr O’Bryan comes from one of the most storied legal families in the country, with several relatives having served as senior judges, and is a former go-to silk for corporate regulator ASIC.

The charges were filed on June 28 by Victoria Police’s Fin­ancial Crime Squad and are the latest development in the scandal that engulfed Mr O’Bryan and others over Banksia.

Police said the charges related to the alleged theft of $1.3m.

“Detectives from the Financial Crime Squad have charged a man as part of an investigation into allegations of fraudulent invoices dating back to 2016 and 2017,’’ police said in a statement.

“A 65-year-old Blairgowrie man was charged in June 2024 with two counts of attempt to obtain financial advantage by deception. He will appear at Melbourne Magistrates Court on 30 August.”

Mr O’Bryan was charged on June 28 with attempting to obtain financial advantage by deception by falsely representing hourly rates billed for legal work valued at $1.3m. Obtaining fin­ancial advantage by deception carries a penalty of up to 10 years’ jail in Victoria.

Court documents show Melbourne law firm Galbally O’Bryan will represent Mr O’Bryan, who has a family connection to the firm. Galbally O’Bryan is a prominent firm that acted as solicitors for cardinal George Pell when he faced sex crime charges.

Mr O’Bryan also was charged with payment of a contingency fee of $1.3m by falsely representing the total amount of fees billed.

In 2021, the Victorian Supreme Court found Mr O’Bryan, barrister Michael Symons and the late class action lawyer Mark Elliott overcharged victims of Banksia Securities by inflating their fees and commissions. It was found to be a class action “adverse” to members’ interests.

The Australian reported at the time that the $64m class action settlement was challenged by a Banksia investor.

This led to the Court of Appeal directing a trial judge to investigate the nearly $13m com­mission the litigation funder took and the $4.7m (plus GST) in legal fees charged by the lawyers.

The class action, funded by Mr Elliott’s Australian Funding Partners Limited, was filed in 2012 on behalf of investors after the $660m collapse of rural ­lender Banksia Securities.

The charge sheet alleges Mr O’Bryan, a former Rhodes Scholar and senior counsel tipped for the Supreme Court bench, tried to commit an indictable offence between November 2017 and July 2021.

The charge sheet alleges that the hours billed were wrong and that he had allegedly gained about $1.3m due to his offending.

The Australian reported in 2021 that judge John Dixon noted in his civil court judgment that the lawyers had engaged in “egregious conduct” in connection with the fraudulent scheme.

Justice Dixon ordered Mr O’Bryan and Mr Symons to pay damages of $11.7m to some 16,000 group members. The Australian sought comment from Galbally and O’Bryan.