Councillor will hand herself in: husband

Fugitive councillor Hajnal Black will hand herself in to authorities once her legal paperwork is in order, says her husband.

An arrest warrant for Ms Black, a Logan City councillor, was issued on Friday after she stormed out midway through a court hearing into whether she failed to declare a pecuniary interest while in public office.

Police have visited her home several times, which she shares with husband and fellow councillor Sean Black but she has not been found.

Mr Black said he had received an email from his wife overnight saying she was working on legal documents.

“I think Hajnal is working through the legal processes and that she will present herself to the courts once they have worked out a hearing date and an appropriate time for those appeals to be heard,” Mr Black told ABC radio.

“I am making that assumption that’s what she is doing to go forward.

“It’s hard to know what is happening when I am not actually talking with my wife.

“She’s just shut herself from the media and getting her paperwork together.”

Magistrate Trevor Morgan issued the warrant after Ms Black failed to appear at Beenleigh Magistrates Court on Thursday last week and then stormed out of an adjourned hearing on Friday.

The magistrate was to decide whether she had breached local government disclosure laws.

Ms Black had been seeking the overturning of a court decision that ruled she should have held $1.37 million in trust for an elderly man with dementia instead of transferring it into her own account.

The ruling in the Supreme Court in Brisbane gave Queensland’s Public Trustee the right to start pursuing the money taken by Ms Black in October 2009.

In the hearing late last year, David Jackson, QC, for the Public Trustee, told the court Ms Black, who was given power of attorney over the man’s affairs in April 2009, knew he lacked capacity when she transferred the money six months later.

Mr Jackson submitted that knowledge, along with the nature and size of the transaction, meant Ms Black had acted improperly.

However, Ms Black told the court she was acting in accordance with the 66-year-old man’s wishes when she made the transfer.

Justice David Boddice ruled in favour of the Public Trustee on the matter and ordered Ms Black pay costs.

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