an appointment as Australia's ambassador to Ireland and the Holy See. In the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion to the Order of Australia. Downfall In April 1991, Burke appeared before the WA Inc royal commission. The royal commission's report, released on 19 October 1992, was critical of Burke but did not consider his behaviour illegal. The report stated: However, another report found that he had falsely claimed $17,000 worth of travel expenses. In 1992, Burke was charged with five counts of defrauding the state by making false claims on the parliamentary imprest account. He was accused of claiming money from the account on five separate occasions despite those trips having been already paid for by another account. Burke's defence was that his staff had done so unwittingly and that he had no knowledge of it. One of the charges was later dropped. On 13 July 1994, Burke was found guilty on all four counts of fraud. The maximum sentence he faced was three years jail for each count. He was released on bail for $25,000. Two days later, he was sentenced to two years in prison. He was released on parole after seven months. In April 1995, he was stripped of his Order of Australia honour. In March 1997, he was found guilty of stealing $122,585 in campaign donations to the Labor Party to fund his stamp collection. He was sentenced to three years jail, but served six months before the conviction was quashed on appeal. Lobbying activities Burke became active as a consultant and lobbyist for Western Australian business interests. His continued involvement in state Labor branch politics was the subject of controversy since before Labor returned to power in 2001. As premier, Geoff Gallop banned cabinet ministers from contact with Burke, but this was lifted by his successor Alan Carpenter when he took office in February 2006. On 9 November 2006, Burke resigned from the Labor Party after public criticism from Carpenter, in part due to evidence provided to the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC). Norm Marlborough, the Minister for Small Business and the South-West in the Carpenter Ministry, was forced to resign from the ministry and from the Parliament on 10 November 2006 after the Corruption and Crime Commission revealed he had kept a "secret mobile phone" to stay in touch with Burke. This triggered a by-election for Marlborough's seat of Peel, although