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A Queensland solicitor jailed for the $1,000,000 theft from a family business has been recommended for removal from the roll.
Gail Susan Hinschen, admitted as a solicitor in 1955 under the family name Borello, may be struck from the roll following a recommendation and a denunciation of her conduct by the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) on Monday, 15 June.
Hinschen was sentenced to a five-year jail term, suspended after 12 months, in June 2021 for the theft of over $1,000,000 from a real estate company she set up with her two brothers.
Between 2007 and 2014, Hinschen deployed “consideration sophistication” to funnel the money into some 36 accounts held by her husband and herself, five accounts held in her children’s name, and two companies with four further bank accounts.
Some funds were repaid to the company, but an amount just shy of $440,000 remained outstanding and lost, the tribunal noted.
The tribunal heard the brothers, both tradesmen, relied on Hinschen as they thought she was “more sophisticated, mainly for her experience as a solicitor”, and therefore best suited to manage the bank account.
“It hardly needs to be said that misappropriating over a million dollars and rendering those who trusted you to suffer a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars for the purpose of lining one’s own pocket … falls well short of the standard expected by anyone in our society, let alone a member of a profession demanding the highest standards of honesty and integrity,” QCAT’s Justice Duncan McMeekin KC said.
Along with practitioner panel member Petrina Macpherson and lay panel member Keith Revell, Justice McMeekin said it was “difficult to think of any ameliorating factor” that could justify a result other than finding Hinschen engaged in professional misconduct.
While Hinschen eventually stepped away from the disciplinary proceedings due to mental health concerns and made no objection to the strike-off recommendation, she initially asked that there be no compensation order or penalty imposed by the tribunal.
Hinschen said she had already been adequately punished “with prison, loss of reputation and significant mental health issues”.
However, Justice McMeekin said the offence was a “serious example of dishonesty”, the conduct took place over a “very long period”, and Hinschen had been an experienced practitioner of 18 years standing.
“Ten years have passed and more since the dishonest conduct, but that is of no significance here,” Justice McMeekin said.
Citation: Legal Services Commissioner v Hinschen [2026] QCAT 248.
