Ex-lawyer’s mortgage scrap goes on
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’ six-month home detention sentence is not due to expire until March 28.
Losing his home just south of Levin could see him having to be resentenced 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 that 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. Memelink is currently bankrupt but is trying to have the bankruptcy annulled. Haines says whatever he owes under the mortgage can be covered by the more than $1 million Memelink still owes him for about 4000 hours of legal work.
Memelink has complained to the Law Society about Haines’ conduct and the size of his bill.
During yesterday’s hearing, Justice Grice noted the complicated and contentious background to the dispute. Details of the hearing were suppressed.