A managing partner and lawyer of 29 years has been banned by the Federal Court from sending debt collection letters until further notice.

Pippa Sampson of GE Lawyers, a Melbourne-based boutique law firm, is being investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) for allegedly writing and posting four misleading letters to customers of a DVD store, according to reports by News Limited. The letters allegedly threatened to dock the wages of the recipients in order to recoup the fines they had incurred at the DVD store and insinuated that her firm, GE Lawyers, had the power to take such action, when in fact only a court has such power.

The customers were also allegedly told they would be liable for significant legal costs and had been effectively served with a court document when they had not. Sampson has been an admitted lawyer since 1981 according to the firm’s website and was previously a ministerial adviser/personal secretary to the Minister for Planning and Environment (Victoria) and the former company director of Methodist Ladies College (MLC).

The case continues on November 24.