Blog Archives — Page 4 of 11

Firearm Offences

The Government’s stance on Firearms and Criminal Groups is an extremely tough one, with a raft of recent legislation and amendments having been made. The penalty for possessing or using a pistol or prohibited firearm is 14 years imprisonment. The offence of possessing or using a firearm ie. not prohibited is 5 years imprisonment. The […]

Larceny

All larceny offences are to be dealt with in the same way regardless of the value of the property – see s116 below. An offence against s117 (see below) is a table 1 offence where the value of the property exceeds $5000 and a table 2 offence where the property does not exceed $5000. Where […]

Driving Whilst Using A Mobile Phone

Regulation 300 (set out below) relating to drivers using a mobile phone was amended on the 1st November 2012 to include within the definition of ‘use’: (a) holding the body of the phone in her or his hand (whether or not engaged in a phone call), except while in the process of giving the body […]

Crown Opinions on Sentence

Unlike in the United States where sentence agreements can be reached between the District Attorney and the Defence – the recent High Court decision of Barbaro v The Queen; Zirilli v The Queen [2014] HCA 2 illustrates that the Crown’s bare view on the range of sentence to be imposed has no place in Australian […]

Section 10

Section 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (the Act) allows the court to either dismiss the charge or discharge an offender on condition/s without proceeding to a conviction. In imposing a sentence under section 10 of the Act, the court must be satisfied that it is inexpedient to inflict any punishment (other than […]

Community Service Orders

A Community Service Order may not be made unless the court is satisfied that the offender is a suitable person to perform community service work (s86(1)(a) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 – see below) . If the court then deems that it is appropriate in all of the circumstances (and subject to the further conditions […]

Inciting Crimes e.g. Inciting Violence

The offence of inciting a crime, usually in the context of violence (such as riot or affray), is an offence of primary liability (as opposed to derivative or accessorial liability). The purpose of the offence is to criminalise behaviour that urges or encourages others to commit a crime, before the crime takes place. The offence […]

Failure to Comply with Notice to Produce from RMS

Failure to comply with a direction to produce documents or information to the Roads and Maritimes Services (RMS) can carry significant penalties, the penalties being 40 penalty units ($4400) for an individual or 200 penalty units for a corporation ($22,000). The offences are significantly greater for providing false or misleading information. The offences are ones […]

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