Brisbane lawyer Ned McGrane Hunter to be struck off for misconduct, tribunal rules

A Brisbane lawyer who had a high-flying career in London before it spiralled out of control is set to be struck off the roll of legal practitioners, a tribunal has ruled.

Brisbane lawyer Ned Hunter is set to be struck off the roll of legal practitioners, a tribunal has found.

A Brisbane lawyer who had a high-flying London career before his downfall into robbing chemists with a threat of a knife to get a potent painkiller is set to be struck off the roll of legal practitioners, a tribunal has ruled.

In a decision handed down by Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal President Kerri Mellifont on Thursday, she ruled that Nanango-born Ned McGrane Hunter should be struck off for misconduct.

The ruling came after he was convicted of armed robbery in the District Court of Queensland in Brisbane on August 12, 2021 for which he was sentenced to a wholly-suspended three years jail, with an operational period of four years.

This related to him stealing 180 tablets of Oxycodone from a chemist in the Brisbane suburb of Jindalee on November 1, 2020.

He handed the pharmacist a note stating: “Don’t panic. I have a knife and acid in my bag. I want you to go to the back and put all your oxycodone’s in my bag without making a scene”.

Four months after he was sentenced in the District Court, he was convicted of a further 17 charges in the Magistrates Court at Richlands, the QCAT decision states.

Brisbane lawyer Ned Hunter is set to be struck off the roll of legal practitioners, a tribunal has found.

On December 3, 2021 he pleaded guilty to two counts stealing, seven counts of forgery, four counts of impersonation with intent to defraud, uttering a forged document, fraudulently obtaining property, driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and wilful damage to police property.

He was ordered to perform 18 months probation. A conviction was recorded.

These charges related to him forging a letter from a doctor at Canberra Hospital in an unsuccessful bid to get oxycodone from a Medical Centre at Everton Hills, and stealing a prescription book from the Kingaroy Hospital.

They also relate to him tearing strips from a blanket in his cell at the Richlands watch-house in September 2021 and driving on the Centenary Motorway in August 2021 while high on heroin.

He returned to the District Court again five months later on April 4, 2022, for breaching his probation order and his suspended sentence.

For breaching his suspended sentence, the District Court invoked three months of the suspended term of imprisonment, with immediate parole release, the decision states.

In submissions to the tribunal Hunter stated he lives with his partner in Brisbane and has worked for a marketing and retail company since March 2023, and is now area sales representative.

Hunter has fully co-operated with the Legal Services Commissioner and agreed to the proposed sanction to remove his name from the roll.

He was admitted to the legal profession by the Supreme Court of Queensland on 16 March 2015.

In December 2021 his lawyer told Richlands Magistrates Court that Hunter had been working in a law firm in London, and he had graduated from Nanango State High School in 2007 as Student of the Year.

He graduated from the University of Queensland with honours in law and economics.

Hunter told QCAT that his addiction to opiates began with prescription medication in Canada after a snowboarding accident on holiday.

Originally published as Brisbane lawyer Ned McGrane Hunter to be struck off for misconduct, tribunal rules