Man charged with multiple serious offences escapes imprisonment 

Lawyer-in-charge: Lara Menon

Our client was a 30 year old man charged with some very serious offences, including two counts of possess prohibited drug, two counts of possess unregistered prohibited firearm, possess prohibited plant, possess prohibited drug and divert of use electricity from generating system without authority. Our client had already entered a plea of guilty prior to instructing our office. Lara made submissions in relation to the subjective circumstances of our client, which included a deprived and troubled childhood.

Lara submitted that, in accordance with the principles in the case of Bugmy, these factors reduce our client’s criminal culpability, and tendered evidence to the Court in support of this submission. Due to the seriousness of the offense, and the number of offences, the Court considered the threshold for imprisonment to be crossed, and Lara needed to convince the Court that there was a suitable alternative to imprisonment. The Court ultimately agreed and fined our client $2,050, and placed him on a Community Corrections Order for 18 months, to complete 200 hours of community service.