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The idea that reserving the title 'lawyer' and confining its use to those subject to regulation would remove charlatans from practice is absurd.

While it is obvious that unregulated practitioners cannot be permitted, anymore than unqualified pilots should fly jumbo jets it is nonsense to suggest that the mere regulation of the term lawyers is any guarantee of their expertise or their integrity.

This publication carries in virtually every edition these days stories of solicitors and barristers prosecuted for fraud or sued for appalling negligence. The excruciatingly strict regulations apllying to those professions has never been an obstruction or deterrent to the shysters who are determined infiltrate their ranks. The absence of a criminal conviction at the time of application can mean two different things, this person is honest or this person has not been caught yet.

Cremin is a criminal and there is no magic formula for preventing criminals, including those that do have the 'right' qualifications or registration from conning the vulnerable.