A former solicitor and convicted fraudster who embezzled $1million from her family's company faces being barred from the legal profession as she pleads for no further penalty after 'disastrous losses' on the share market.

Gail Hinschen was convicted in June 2021 after pleading guilty in the Queensland District Court. She was initially sentenced to a period of five years' imprisonment, which was suspended after 12 months, and she remains subject to a suspended sentence. 

Several years on, Hinschen faces being struck off the roll of legal practitioners after the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal recommended her removal, finding it had little confidence she 'is, or ever will be a fit and proper person' to remain in the profession.

Last week, the QCAT heard an application by the Legal Services Commissioner for disciplinary action against Hinschen, who has not held a practising certificate since 2015, over professional misconduct allegations stemming from 'serious and deliberate acts of dishonesty'.

As part of its orders, the Tribunal also discharged a non-publication order from November 2024, finding there was no evidence that publication would harm Hinschen's mental health, and allowing details of the case and her identity to be publicly reported.

She was also ordered to pay the Legal Services Commissioner's costs. 

The deception, which the Tribunal described as involving 'considerable sophistication', occurred between 2007 and 2013, with Hinschen misappropriating just over a million dollars from a real estate company she set up with her brothers.

While Hinschen was admitted as a lawyer in 1995, under the name Gail Susan Borello, at the time of the offending she was acting as the director of her family's company. 

Hinschen's brothers, both tradesmen, relied on her to manage the company and equally split the profits made from buying, selling and renting real estate. 

In carrying out the fraud, Hinschen used 36 accounts held by herself and her husband, along with two companies they controlled, and a further five accounts which were held in her children's names.

While some of the money was repaid to the family's company, almost $440,000 was never recovered.

A significant portion of the misappropriated funds was used to trade in the share market, from which Hinschen incurred 'disastrous losses'. 

A psychiatric report tendered upon her District Court sentencing stated that Hinschen suffered from a 'major depressive disorder of moderate severity', which impaired her ability to 'exercise good judgement, think clearly and fully appreciate the risks and wrongfulness of her conduct'.

According to the published decision, Hinschen advised the Tribunal that she could not continue participating in the proceedings, citing a decline in her mental health, but agreed to the matter progressing in her absence.

She told the Tribunal she did not object to being removed from the roll of solicitors, but requested that she face no further penalties, claiming she had already been adequately punished 'with prison, loss of reputation and significant mental health issues'. 

However, in its published decision, the Tribunal found the conduct denoted 'a complete lack of integrity and trustworthiness'.

'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,' the decision stated.

'It is difficult to think of any ameliorating factor that could justify any other result than a finding of professional misconduct, but there are none here.' 

In recommending Hinschen's removal from the roll, the Tribunal also cited the importance of both protecting the public and preserving the 'good standing' of the legal profession.