The appellant lawyer appealed a decision of the Law Society Appeal Panel, which had overturned a Hearing Panel's finding that he did not commit fraud in certain real estate transactions.
The appellant argued the Appeal Panel failed to respect the Hearing Panel's credibility finding that he had an honest but mistaken belief that the lenders knew the actual structure of the transactions.
The Divisional Court dismissed the appeal, agreeing with the Appeal Panel that the Hearing Panel's credibility findings were tainted by its flawed legal analysis of fraud, and upholding the referral to a new Hearing Panel.
