Former mayor’s misconduct revealed

A FRANKSTON Council candidate was banned from practicing psychology in 2020 after he was found to have entered a sexual relationship with a former patient.

Alistair Wardle is a candidate in Yamala Ward. He is a former mayor of Frankston, serving on council until 2012. Sometime after that he moved interstate – in 2013 he established a private psychology practice in New South Wales. In late 2019, the New South Wales Health Care Complaints Commission prosecuted multiple complaints made against Wardle. The NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that Wardle had terminated a therapeutic relationship with a patient to pursue a personal relationship, which later became sexual. It made findings of unsatisfactory professional conduct, professional misconduct, and impairment.

The tribunal’s decision read that Wardle ceased treating his patient “in order to pursue a personal relationship and did so without proper regard to her interests, a professional assessment of her therapeutic needs, and without seeking supervision”. Wardle later entered a “sexual and employment relationship” with his former patient, the finding read.

The tribunal wrote that the patient went on to be employed by Wardle’s practice to perform administrative work. They maintained a friendship after their sexual relationship ended, and she appeared as a witness on his behalf at the tribunal. Wardle admitted to the relationship during the hearing.

The tribunal also found that Wardle had terminated the therapy of a separate patient “in order to pursue various business ventures with her, during the course of which he became completely enmeshed in all aspects of her finances and personal life”.

The Frankston Council candidate engaged in “personal contact and gifts during the therapeutic relationship and various incidents of sexualised remarks and touching thereafter” with that patient, the tribunal found. It found that Wardle had a personality disorder which impacted his judgment. On 5 March, 2020, Wardle’s registration to practice psychology was cancelled with a non-review period of five years.

In a statement to The Times, Wardle denied the allegations. “Nothing was proven according to normal judicial proceedings,” Wardle said. “I would like to state that I am innocent of any of the things alleged in the complaint and have vigorously maintained that stance, since the complaint was first made.” “I worked as a community psychologist in keeping with my lifelong values – a role that was a vocation, not a career – and express my thanks to the hundreds of clients, friends and former colleagues who supported me through the ordeal of the injustice that was done to me. “The real story should be about the way in which the Health Care Complaints Commission operates and supposedly investigates complaints.”

Wardle’s Frankston Council candidate statement posted on the Victorian Electoral Commission website does not make mention of his history as a psychologist. He wrote that if elected, he will “provide quick, friendly and great customer service with a ‘yes, can do attitude’.” Wardle’s website also does not list psychology among his work experience.

Voting closed for local government elections last Friday, 25 September. The other candidates contesting Yamala Ward are: Nathan Butler, Garry Ebbott, Sheila Newman, and former councillor Steve Toms.

First published in the Frankston Times – 29 October 2024