DISGRACED Aboriginal barrister Paul Coe may soon head Sydney’s Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, less than a decade after an indigenous legal service he ran as his personal fiefdom was wound up with debts of $2 million.

The Australian understands members of the council voted last week to appoint the disbarred Aboriginal barrister as general manager.

“Metro” as it is known, is the land council that spans metropolitan Sydney, from the Hawkesbury River in the north to the Georges River in the south.

An investigator appointed by the NSW Government last year found the council had paid Mr Coe $3000 for legal advice, despite the fact he had been disbarred.

And the NSW Bar Council is looking into allegations that the flamboyant Mr Coe continued to practise as a barrister although he has no licence to do so.

The move to install Mr Coe comes as land councils in the state are under considerable scrutiny. Last November, the state Government dismissed the peak body, the NSW Land Council, appointing an administrator to run it after a report revealed financial mismanagement had cost the organisation millions of dollars.

“I have made this decision to protect the long-term future and viability of the land council system,” Deputy Premier Andrew Refshauge, the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, said at the time.

Yet Dr Refshauge, the state member for the inner-western Sydney electorate of Marrickville that includes the strife-torn Aboriginal district of Redfern, had no comment on the prospect that Mr Coe would become general manager of the Metro council.

Instead, he ducked for cover: “It’s a matter for the land council,” said his spokesperson. “They are entitled to appoint whoever they choose. It’s a democratic process.” The process in question involves an organisation that has come under fire from Robert Jackson, the government investigator, who recommended appointing an administrator to run it. According to his report, the land council’s procedures for costing projects, dealing in land, allocating houses and appointing staff bordered on mismanagement.

Mr Coe was disbarred in 1997, after allegations he had “deliberately” and “dishonestly” billed the Aboriginal Legal Services for thousands of dollars while holidaying overseas with his family. The ALS had been wound up that year, mired in debts of $2million.

Mr Coe lives with his wife and children in a big Metro-owned house in Alexandria, lavishly renovated by the land council in recent years.

Approached at home for a comment on his appointment as general manager, Mr Coe had only three words for the reporter from The Australian. The first word was “Go” and the last was “yourself”.