A Canberra criminal lawyer accused of dishonestly accepting tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees has been found guilty of fraud.
It took a jury one day of deliberations to return 14 guilty verdicts and one not guilty verdict, rejecting the bulk of Stephen Stubbs' defence.
The trial stalled last week, after six days of evidence, when Stubbs who defended himself after splitting with his barrister, did not turn up to court to continue cross-examination by prosecutor Katrina McKenzie.
It emerged he admitted himself to Goulburn Hospital on December 7.
Justice John Burns issued a warrant for his arrest last week, and Stubbs, 63, was picked up on Monday on discharge from the hospital, spending a night in custody before the trial resumed on Tuesday.
Ordering the ACT Supreme Court trial go ahead, Justice Burns said he had seen no evidence of any genuine reason for Stubbs to be in hospital. It had emerged in court that Stubbs had a pre-existing heart condition, for which he was taking medication. But the judge said a specialist's report presented to the court had found nothing definite that would explain Stubbs' present complaints.
The 14 guilty verdicts related to allegations Stubbs dishonestly accepted $30,000 in money transfers from his client's mother Anne Duffy, and $4,000 from Legal Aid ACT, the legal funding service for low-income Canberrans.
The one verdict of not guilty related to an alleged cash payment of $5000 that Mrs Duffy said she had paid him at court one day.
"The only thing I can say is that I'm so disappointed that an officer of the court could do something like this," Mrs Duffy said outside court on Thursday. "I'm not angry anymore, it's been too long to be angry."
Stubbs had been practising law only a few years when Alexander Duffy's high-profile case landed in his lap in 2008, the court heard.
Duffy had been arrested and charged with assault and acts endangering life, charges later upgraded to conspiracy to commit murder. After he was arrested, Duffy applied for and was granted legal aid, nominating Stubbs as his preferred lawyer on the advice of another detainee while in the Belconnen Remand Centre.
Over the next year, the Crown said, Stubbs took money from both Legal Aid and Mrs Duffy, keeping both in the dark about each other.
He had denied the claims throughout the trial, arguing he was doing work for the Duffys that was outside the grant of funding.
Following the verdict, Stubbs applied for bail, which was opposed by the prosecution. But Justice Burns granted his release, on the condition Stubbs paid a cash surety of $5000 to the court and reported to ACT police three times a week.
The court heard Stubbs has not paid the money back, but Justice Burns told the man reparations would weigh heavily in his favour.
The judge ordered a pre-sentence report.
The matter will return to court in February for sentencing.