Mr Irving, who heads the Ipswich office of Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied Lawyers, is charged with perjury, for allegedly giving false testimony at a CCC hearing in January.

He also is charged with three counts of making a false verified statement, in June, July and August, last year.

It is alleged Mr Irving falsely stated a woman was driving his Mercedes-Benz when it was booked for speeding last year.

Mr Irving was allowed to be released on bail, but only because he could not travel overseas due to international travel bans because of the coronavirus.

Mr Irving’s solicitor Daniel Hannay told the media outside court the charges would be strongly denied and that it was “doomed to fail”.

Mr Hannay criticised the CCC, saying it should be “ashamed” in relation to the arrest.

“An arrest warrant was signed Thursday morning. Police waited until Friday afternoon, when they couldn’t get Mr Irving before a court, to arrest him,” Mr Hannay said.

Mr Hannay said that it was, in fact, a ploy by the CCC to have him kept in overnight.

“There is no other reason to delay the arrest, in circumstances where they had the arrest warrant over 24 hours prior and waited until Friday afternoon, when there was no magistrate to hear it,” he said.

Court records indicate that Brisbane Magistrate Suzette Coates initially told Mr Irving’s barrister, Angus Edwards, that he would not be released from the Brisbane Watchhouse before Monday.

Ms Coates allowed Mr Irving bail on conditions that he surrender his passport, not leave Queensland, reside at his Ipswich home address and not have any contact with a female witness in the case.

However, when told Mr Irving did not have his passport with him, Ms Coates said his solicitor would have to get it and Mr Irving could not be released until Monday.

Ms Coates said they were serious charges and it was normal for someone to have to surrender their passport before they could be released and that it wasn’t because Mr Irving is a “lawyer”.

“I’m not applying any special conditions because he happens to be a solicitor,” Ms Coates said. “People who are on the roll as practising solicitors get the same... decision as other people do in the general public.”

But after barrister Mr Edwards pointed out a passport was irrelevant because there was no capacity to travel overseas due to COVID-19, Ms Coates changed her mind. She allowed Mr Irving to be released, on condition he surrender his passport by Monday afternoon.

Moloney MacCallum Abdelshahied Lawyers principal Campbell MacCallum said in a statement any investigation by the CCC must be taken “very seriously”.

“The alleged offences have no connection to our firm nor his conduct as a lawyer,” he said.

“The partners will be meeting as soon as practicable to discuss the immediate future of an employee who has potentially brought our firm into disrepute, notwithstanding the alleged offences were not done in the course of his employment nor have any connection to our firm.”