The decision on the Supreme Court hearing into Ms Yousif was handed down last week. Photo: Wikipedia.
The NSW Supreme Court has ruled that a former Griffith and Wagga-based solicitor is to be removed from the Roll of Australian Lawyers, five years after she was convicted of crimes related to her involvement with bikie gang Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
In March 2020, Alina Yousif was found guilty of participating in a criminal group; using a false document with the intention of inducing a person to accept it as genuine; and knowingly taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug – 55.5 grams of ice.
Last week, the NSW Supreme Court ruled on an application that she was not a fit and proper person to remain on the Roll of Australian Lawyers, which gives solicitors the legal right to practise.
Ms Yousif opposed the application, arguing that although she was not a fit and proper person at the time of the offences, she had developed sufficient insight into her behaviour since then.
But judges Julie Ward, Michael Ball and John Basten disagreed.
“Ms Yousif remains a person who is willing to say and do whatever will achieve her immediate goals without being overly concerned about what the right thing to do is,” the trio ruled.
“It demonstrates that she continues to be unfit to remain on the roll. It is not possible to say with any confidence if and when the position will change.”
According to the published decision, Ms Yousif was born in Iraq and came to Australia with her family as a child refugee. She moved to Griffith to work for the Aboriginal Legal Service (ALS) as a junior solicitor in 2016 and later worked for Legal Aid in Wagga.
Shortly after she arrived in Griffith, she started a relationship with Clinton Parkinson, who was living in Albury at the time. Mr Parkinson had previously served jail time after being convicted of supplying the prohibited drug methylamphetamine.
Several months after the relationship began, Mr Parkinson joined the Bandidos Motorcycle Club.
Ms Yousif said the relationship with him started harmoniously but he gradually became abusive. She said she started receiving periodic visits from Bandidos members checking up on her. She said that from that time she was “constantly being followed and watched in Griffith during the week and on weekends in Albury”. For the majority of the time they were together, Ms Yousif paid the rent and bills for Mr Parkinson’s home in Albury.
Ms Yousif then involved herself in criminal activity, including helping Mr Parkinson’s colleague use a fake letter to obtain a driver’s licence. Police video surveillance also captured her offering Mr Parkinson $2000 to cover a shortfall in the purchase of illegal drugs.
She was arrested in December 2017. Although she pleaded not guilty to the offences, she was found guilty in March 2020 and handed a three-year jail sentence. However, she avoided prison time by serving her sentence in the community on an intensive correction order.
At the recent Supreme Court hearing, the former Riverina-based solicitor argued that her name should not be removed from the lawyer roll. She said there was strong evidence of extenuating circumstances because she was in an abusive relationship with Mr Parkinson at the time and that abusive relationship was the primary reason she committed the offences.
She also argued she has taken major steps to rehabilitate herself, including through counselling and by joining social groups that make a significant contribution to the community.
The three Supreme Court judges did not agree that Ms Yousif had developed an adequate insight into her offending such that she was suitable to remain on the roll.
“At the very least, the answers she gave in cross-examination before this Court referred to above demonstrate that Ms Yousif has not fully accepted the respects in which her conduct involved the commission of serious criminal offences, including criminal offences going to her honesty,” they ruled.
While the judges accepted that Ms Yousif was in an abusive relationship with Mr Parkinson, they found this relationship was not the primary reason she committed the offences.
The Supreme Court decided that she be removed from the Roll of Australian Lawyers and ruled that she would have to pay the costs associated with the proceedings.
Original Article published by Oliver Jacques on Region Riverina.
