Leon Nikolaidis,was ordered into custody on Wednesday. He will be eligible for release for Christmas next year.

Leon Nikolaidis, a sole practitioner from Newport whose office was in Elizabeth Street in the city, was bailed and able to work after the Supreme Court stayed an attempt by the Law Society of NSW to cancel his practising certificate just before last Christmas.The stay continued all year, although it was meant to apply only for the three months it was thought it would take for his appeal against his conviction and sentence to be heard and determined, so some clients would not be disadvantaged and the sale of his firm to an employee who testified at his trial could proceed.
However, the case in the Court of Criminal Appeal was not heard until July and the unanimous decision by justices McClellan, Simpson and Hislop was not handed down until last Wednesday.A hearing on the stay application is due to be heard again in the Supreme Court on February 3.In the meantime, Nikolaidis is expected to apply for special leave to appeal to the High Court this week.He was charged in 2002 with making a false instrument - a backdated costs agreement - between October 1996 and February 1998 in order to prejudice a former client, John Preston.Nikolaidis's first trial was aborted after an application by the Crown. Two hung juries followed before he was convicted in August last year after a fourth trial.The jury accepted that Nikolaidis had given clear and express instructions to his former secretary in the late 1990s to type a letter of engagement that included the costs to be charged, together with a carbon copy, on obsolete letterheads to give the impression it had been created in 1984. This was so a Supreme Court-appointed costs assessor would be induced to award costs at a higher level.The District Court's Judge Brian Knox set a 12-month non-parole period when sentencing Nikolaidis in November last year. After 13 months on bail Nikolaidis was ordered into custody on Wednesday. He will be eligible for release for Christmas next year.