Robert Roy Vernon

Flamboyant Victorian criminal barrister Robert Roy Vernon had an aversion to paying tax.

So much so that he went bankrupt to avoid his tax debts . . . not once, but four times.

And it didn't even slow the flow of his business as bankrupt Victorian barristers are allowed to keep practising.

They don't even have to inform the Victorian Bar Council or their clients about their bankruptcy.

Mr Vernon, who died in 2000 aged 71, first went bankrupt in 1972, seven years after unsuccessfully standing as the ALP candidate for the state seat of Caulfield.

He again went bankrupt in 1979, 1986 and 1995.

Mr Vernon was known in legal circles by the nickname "Rolls-Royce'', because of his initials rather than what he drove.

He  owed the Australian Tax Office $60,940 when he last went bankrupt.

On of Vernon's more notable clients was Raymond 'Chuck' Bennett, the man believed to be the mastermind behind the 1976 Great Bookie Robbery at the Victoria Club in Queen St.

Bennett, an associate of the Painters and Dockers, was shot dead out-side Melbourne Magistrates' Court shortly after.

Federal Court records detailing Vernon's debts from the three earlier bankruptcies reveal he went bankrupt owing the ATO $3075 in 1972, $33,000 in 1979 and $20,035 in 1986.

His 1995 bankruptcy statement of affairs claimed he hadn't been in business during the previous five years.

But the Herald Sun was able to establish that Mr Vernon continued to work as a barrister during the time he claimed he was unemployed.

He defended Mercy Private Hospital gunman William Ernest Jolly in the Supreme Court in July 1993.

Jolly killed a secretary by shooting her four times in the head and wounded the Mercy's radiology business manager.

Mr Vernon also represented Peter McEvoy during the Walsh St police shootings trial in 1991.

McEvoy was one of four men accused of murdering Constables Steve Tynan and Damian Eyre. All four were acquitted.

In a 2001 report by Keith Moor, the Herald Sun said it had identified five Victorian barristers, including Mr Vernon, who went bankrupt in recent years with big tax bills.

Three of them -- Andrew McLeod Jackson, Paul Jens and Pierre Testart -- were undischarged bankrupts when the story went to print.

A spokeswoman for the Legal Practice Board confirmed Mr Jackson, Mr Jens and Mr Testart were still registered to practise and all three had offices in the Owen Dixon Chambers.

Paul Jens was bankrupt when he represented radio presenter Denis Donoghue in 2000 in a breach of contract action against radio station 3AW over his axing from the Lawyers, Guns and Money show.