A high-profile lawyer jailed over charges of using shopping bags of cash to conceal payments involving criminals has had his convictions set aside on appeal and will face a new trial.
Michael Frederick Bosscher, 55, was sentenced in May 2024 in Brisbane District Court to a total of 10 years in jail after a jury found him guilty of fraud and falsifying records to conceal his crime.
Bosscher had been accused of working with other solicitors over four years to take under-the-table cash payments of $520,000 for legal fees without keeping any records or receipts or moving the money into trust accounts.
During the trial prosecutors accused Bosscher of proposing the cash payment scheme to avoid paying GST and evade the terms of his bankruptcy that directed earnings above $70,000 a year to his creditors.
The jury was told Bosscher allegedly controlled the scheme that involved thousands of dollars at a time in the form of shopping bags of cash.
The Queensland Court of Appeal on Friday found the jury should have been discharged as Bosscher, who was representing himself, suffered a relapse in his major depressive disorder that halted the trial for 12 days.
Bosscher fell ill during his cross-examination of Tim Meehan, his former business colleague and a key prosecution witness who had been accused of dishonesty in his evidence.
"After the 12-day delay, the jurors were only reminded of parts of Meehan’s evidence-in-chief," Justices Peter Flanagan, David Boddice and Susan Brown stated in their appeal decision.
The Court of Appeal found the delay in the trial and Bosscher returning to represent himself while not fully capable of doing so could have affected the outcome of the trial as the jury was assessing the credibility of Mr Meehan as a key witness.
"The continuation of the trial after a 12-day delay ... resulted in significant prejudice and rendered the trial unfair," the justices stated.
The Court of Appeal set aside Bosscher's nine convictions and ordered he face a new trial on all counts.
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