From ministerial leather to prison browns, Gordon Nuttall's fall from grace has been a long and painful one for the one-time Labor minister.
Nuttall's Icarus-like decline continued on Wednesday after the state government successfully recouped a quarter of his taxpayer-funded superannuation.
Along the way the former health minister has spent six years in jail, been hauled before the bar of Queensland parliament, fined $82,000 for contempt and had to sell two homes to cover his $400,000 legal bills.
It's all a cry from the days he walked the halls of state parliament, a red rose always in his lapel, and wined and dined with multi-millionaires.
His downfall can arguably be traced to one such meeting; a lunch with then-Macaurthur Coal boss Ken Talbot in Brisbane 2001.
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The animosity between the two men had been intense - with Nuttall having previously lambasted the mining magnate in parliament as "shady" - but eased considerably after the meeting, to the point that Mr Talbot ultimately agreed to loan the then industrial relations minister $300,000.
Nuttall never repaid that money, which he said was for his children, nor another $60,000 he received from businessman Harold Shand.
Those arrangements drew the attention of the Crime and Misconduct Commission and saw him sentenced to seven years jail in 2009.
Another seven years was later added to his sentence after he was convicted of corruption and perjury charges relating to his relationship with businessman Brendan McKennariey.
He was released from prison in 2015 but will remain on parole until 2023.
Nuttall has steadfastly denied wrongdoing throughout, in 2011 telling state parliament he was the victim of a "campaign" by the corruption watchdog and prosecutors.
"I struggle each and every day to understand where the criminality is in our behaviour," he said.
The Brisbane Supreme Court's decision on Wednesday will see Nuttall forced to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars of his $1.5 million taxpayer-funded superannuation, but critics say a harsher penalty was warranted.
Former housing minister Robert Schwarten said Nuttall had "got off light".
"He betrayed the trust of the Labor party, he betrayed the trust of the cabinet, he betrayed the trust of his mates and that's a pretty low mark for anybody.
"I regarded him as somebody to be watched with both eyes and it's proved to be right," he said.
