Joining that not-so exclusive club of MPs who have been chucked out of Parliament for good - an institution which he has graced and loved for more than two decades - would be equally if not more devastating.
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• John Banks found guilty
In time, however, he will regard the verdict as just another low point in a public life which has been punctuated constantly with noteworthy highs and similarly littered with hard-to-take lows.
But not now. Banks is cursed with being a perfectionist. But the world of politics is imperfect. It has a habit of of throwing a curve-ball out of nowhere. And Banks - who would have thought he was off the hook after the police opted not to press charges - got one which he will argue to his dying day he never deserved.
But as much as he has been found guilty of rorting the handling of political donations, he is more guilty of foolishness. For that reason, it would be silly to send him to prison.
That anyway looks unlikely to happen.
During a career in politics at both the at national and local level, Banks could play the game as roughly as anyone.
He once used one of his radio programmes to describe a Herald political reporter, who had penned a few negative, but pretty innocuous remarks rebuking Banks for something he had done as a minister, as "a streak of weasel's piss".
But behind the bravado and unique phraseology - he has constantly spoken of how he would "restructure, rebuild, rebrand and relaunch" Act as a new party - lies a very human heart.
He has a genuine and lasting regard for those with whom he has crossed paths. He is capable of extraordinary acts of kindness.
Apart from the events which saw him end up in court, his biggest mistake was to return to national politics three years ago as Act's sole MP. He has not had a happy time.
Parliamentary life had changed a lot during his 12-year absence. Being a lone MP has made things even tougher.
Who could forget the night in the House when Labour picked at him like buzzards feeding on road-kill? That is not a criticism of Labour. Banks simply had no colleagues to protect him.
Yet equally anyone listening to the House back in January will not forget his speech on income inequality. This was no academic treatise - and all the more powerful for not being so.
As someone who had experienced grinding poverty - unlike the great majority of MPs - he made a plea for an end to government borrowing to fund ever more welfare.
"I know what it is like going to school every day in an ex-army uniform with no shoes; spending all day, every day, out of the classroom stealing other kids' lunches; going home to bread and milk - at best - at night, cooked over an open fire with sugar on top; if I am very lucky, taking Weet-bix covered in dripping to school each day; and living in a very dark hole. That is child poverty."
The speech moved other MPs in the House regardless of political allegiance. But it was also a reminder that as much as he might try to do so, he can never escape his past.
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