Ex-lawyer’s house scrap

A sex offender lawyer on home detention is secure for the moment against legal action from a disgruntled former client who is trying to sell up his home.

Quentin Stobart Haines’ sixmonth home detention sentence is not due to expire until March 28.

Losing his home just south of Levin could see him having to be re-sentenced if he couldn’t find an alternative address. The sentence was imposed for hiring two teenage girls for sex, when the legal age for prostitution is 18.

Haines stopped practising as a lawyer around the time he pleaded guilty in August 2018.

At the High Court in Wellington yesterday, Justice Christine Grice extended an injunction that stops action to sell Haines’ house at least until she gives her decision on the latest stage of the case.

Haines and a trust own the property, which is subject to more than one mortgage. It’s alleged that one of Haines’ former clients, Harry Memelink, and Lynx Trustees Ltd are behind another trust buying one of the Haines’ mortgages from a finance company and taking steps to have a mortgagee sale of the house.

Memelink and Lynx Trustees Ltd have been sued to stop the sale. Details of the hearing were suppressed.