A 24-year old woman who convinced her parents, friends and neighbours to give her tens of thousands of dollars by falsely claiming that she required the money for lifesaving cancer treatment has been sentenced to three months in prison and a 12 month community corrections order, in a case reminiscent of the Belle Gibson fraud. ...
Articles by Sydney Criminal Lawyers
Government Wants Crime Commission to Lose Its Ability to Investigate
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim The New South Wales Crime Commission is a statutory body established by the state government in 1986 to, as its motto says, ‘Analyse. Investigate. Confiscate’; that is, to analyse and investigate serious criminal activity, and confiscate proceeds of crime. The Commission has extensive powers to investigate crime and gather ...
Wrongly Convicted Man Awarded $1.5 Million
By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim A cognitively-impaired Indigenous man who spent nearly five years in a Western Australian prison for a crime he didn’t commit has received compensation. The Western Australian government has provided a cognitively-impaired Indigenous man with an ex gratia payment of $1.5 million after he spent almost five years in prison ...
Client Legal Privilege in New South Wales
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim Donald Trump is fighting attempts by US prosecutors to obtain approval to review communications seized from the home and offices of his lawyer, Michael Cohen. It is reported that Trump is concerned, among other things, about the exposure of his instructions regarding how “potential negative sources of publicity” should ...
Greens Push to Legalise Cannabis
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim The Greens have highlight the fact that drug prohibition has proven to be a “dismal failure” and are pushing to legalise marijuana across Australia. It is the first party with seats in parliament to call for the legalisation of recreational cannabis use across the nation. Greens leader Richard Di Natale ...
When is a Defendant Unfit for Trial?
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim Fitness for trial relates to the defendant’s ability to comprehend and fairly participate in the trial process. It is a procedural question which is reserved for the higher courts, such as the District or Supreme Court, and is separate from legal defences such as the defence of ‘insanity’. It is ...
Ball Tampering Scandal: A Way to Divert Attention from Government Misconduct
By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim Former English cricket captain Andrew Flintoff told the BBC on Monday that it was “absolute nonsense” that the three Australian cricketers implicated in the recent ball-tampering scandal were the only players who were involved in the deceit. The now-notorious incident saw Australia’s Cameron Bancroft captured on television rubbing the ball ...
E-cigarettes Banned from Public Places
By Sonia Hickey and Ugur Nedim The New South Wales government says it is clearing up the confusion over the legality of vaping across the state. New laws will come into effect in July which mandate a blanket ban on vaping wherever regular smoking is prohibited, including sporting stadiums, public transport stations, public swimming pools ...
Push for Wage Theft to Be Made a Criminal Offence
By Zeb Holmes and Ugur Nedim A group of Victorian Unions is leading a campaign to make ‘wage theft’ a criminal offence ahead of the upcoming state election. The Victorian Trades Hall Council and its Young Workers Centre are pushing the government to enact legislation which would prescribe a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment ...
Three New Magistrates for New South Wales
It has been announced that lawyers Richard Funston, Leanne Robinson and Andrew Miller will be appointed as magistrates of the Local Court of NSW. Magistrates are often responsible for making decisions about large numbers of cases on a daily basis, from decisions on granting bail, to handing-down penalties for criminal offences, to hearing witnesses and ...