top of page
Archive

White collar crimes, criminal charges, & police matter

Wentworth legal team's Media coverage & successful cases 

​

ABC News, Dec 26, 2013

Advised NOT GUILTY to arson offence and aggravated assault.

Result – successfully negotiated with police for charges dropped and obtained s9 with good behaviour bond.  Two arrested over karaoke bar fire in Sydney's inner west More than 40 firefighters on six trucks were called in to put out the blaze at Karaoke Bar (AEDT).  
 

Sydney Morning Herald, Apr 18, 2017

Advised appeal to Man responding to flatmate ad sexually assaulted.

Man responding to flatmate ad sexually assaulted.  

Sydney Morning Herlad, October 2020

Advised a  reasonable prospect of success on bail application for the offences committed 

​

 Practice areas
 

  • Homicide  (Murder, Manslaughter, attempt to murder)
     

  • Drug offences  (Importation, Trafficking, Possession, Manufacturing, Supplying)
     

  • Violence (AVO, Assault causing bodily harm, Break and enter, Robbery & Stealing)
     

  • Sexual office  (Sexual assault, Aggravated assault, Consent)
     

  • Bail application  (Local court and complex supreme court application)
     

  • Corporate  (Stealing, Deception, Unauthorised access to information and data)
     

  • Traffic offences (Drink driving, drive while suspended and cancelled)
     

  • Appeal application (Sentence, Severity, Conviction appeal)

​

​

Need an urgent legal advice?

call 1300 140 291 or admin@wentworthlaw.com.au
 

We are one of the trusted lawyers for those faces difficult times with prosecution charges.

​

  • Homicide  (Murder, Manslaughter, attempt to murder)
     

  • Drug offences  (Importation, Trafficking, Possession, Manufacturing, Supplying)
     

  • Violence (AVO, Assault causing bodily harm, Break and enter, Robbery & Stealing)
     

  • Sexual office  (Sexual assault, Aggravated assault, Consent)
     

  • Bail application  (Local court and complex supreme court application)
     

  • Corporate  (Stealing, Deception, Unauthorised access to information and data)
     

  • Traffic offences (Drink driving, drive while suspended and cancelled)
     

  • Appeal application (Sentence, Severity, Conviction appeal)

​

​

CONTACT US
​

1300 140 291 / admin@wentworthlaw.com.au

Level 10-11, 20 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000 

​

Wentworth criminal lawyers 

Successful cases 

​

  1. Advised GUILTY to possession and use of prohibited drugs.
    Result – successfully obtained s10 with good behaviour bond.
     

  2. Advised GUILTY to possession of child pornography at the airport.Result – successfully obtained s9 with good behaviour bond.
     

  3. Advised GUILTY to Larceny.

    Result – successfully obtained s10 with good behaviour bond.

    ​

  4. Advised GUILTY to serious criminal assault with grievous bodily harm.

    Result – successfully reduced jail sentence to community service with good behaviour bond.  

    ​

  5. Advised NOT GUILTY to aggravated assault in company as a group.

    Result - successfully defended the case, not guilty, all charges dismissed.

    ​

  6. Advised NOT GUILTY to participation in organised criminal groups, money laundering.

    Result – successfully defended the case, not guilty, all charges dismissed.
     

  7. Advised NOT GUILTY to a series of sexual assault charges. 
    Result - successfully defended and not guilty, all charges dismissed.

    ​

  8. Criminal Appeal to weekend jail sentence for forging public documents and breach of trust. 

    Result - successfully dismissed the weekend jail sentence.
     

  9. Advised GUILTY to forging public documents challenging commonwealth sovereignty.

    Result - successfully reduced jail sentence from 5 years to 2 years. 
     

  10. Appeal against criminal conviction recorded

    Result – successfully set aside the conviction “quashed”
     

  11. Advised NOT GUILTY to Common assault.
    Result – successfully negotiated with police and the charge withdrawn.
     

  12. Advised GUILTY to multiple traffic offences, facing a serious jail sentence.

    Result – successfully defeated jail sentence and obtained conditional

    release orders
     

Five (5) main types of assault charges in Australia including:

​

  1. Common assault;

  2. Assault occasioning bodily harm;

  3. Grievous bodily harm and 

  4. Wounding

  5. Stalking and intimidation 
     

Common assault - Under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s61, a person if found guilty, shall be liable to imprisonment for a maximum of 2 years.

​

A common assault charge can be laid against you if you threaten another person or used force on another person without consent, or the victim received a minor injury due to the application of force. 

 

A threat to the use of force can continue over time, as long as the fear in the victim’s mind is immediate and continuing. In Zanker v Vartzokas (1988) 34 A Crim R 11, the victim (a woman) who has accepted a lift in a van refused an offer by the driver of money for sexual favours. The defendant threatened the victim and claimed that he will bring her to his friend’s house and ‘he will fix you up’. The victim feared that she would be assaulted and jumped off from the moving van, suffering bodily injury. The issue was whether the threat in an ‘indefinite future’ constitute assault. The court decided that the fear in the victim’s mind was immediate and continuing, as long as she was imprisoned by the defendant. It does not matter whether the threat was referring to that specific moment.

 

A threat can be made out of sight, as long as it leads the victim to apprehend an immediate danger. In Barton v Armstrong [1976] AC 104, the defendant threatened to kill the plaintiff through the phone. The court held that assault made out of sight may amount to immediate harm.

 

​

Assault occasioning bodily harm - Under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s59, a person if found guilty, shall be liable to imprisonment for the maximum of 5 years.

An Assault occasioning bodily harm charge can be laid against you if the victim of the assault suffered from an injury such as bruises or scratches. Under this charge, the actual harm done to the victim is to be concerned. Such injury has to be severe enough to required medical treatment or time off from work. In R v Donovan [1934] 2 KB 498, the injury need not be permanent but must be more than ‘transient and trifling’. Short term psychiatric illness is recognizable. However, emotions like fear and panic would not be considered as evidence of the clinical condition. 

 

A grievous bodily harm charge can be laid against you if the victim of the attack suffered from very serious injury. Such injury included losing a distinct part of organ, permanent disfigurement and causing death or permanent injury if left untreated. According to s4 of the Crimes Act 1900, causing a person to contract a grievous bodily disease is also considered as a kind of grievous bodily harm, such as sexually transmitted disease.

 

Under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s35, a person if found guilty of inflicting reckless grievous bodily harm, shall be liable to imprisonment for the maximum of 10 years. If a person is found guilty of intending to inflict grievous bodily harm on others, that person shall be liable to imprisonment for a maximum of 25 years.

​

​

What is wounding? - Under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s35, a person if found guilty of inflicting reckless wounding, shall be liable to imprisonment for the maximum of 7 years. If a person is found guilty of intending to wound others, that person shall be liable to imprisonment for a maximum of 25 years.

​

 An unlawful wounding charge can be laid against you if the assault caused breakage of the skin and results in bleeding. In R v Hooper [2004] NSWCCA 10, the results of wounding can be a very minor one. Use of weapon is not a necessary consideration in this charge as provided in R v Shepherd [2003] NSWCCA 351.

​

 

What is stalking and intimidation? - Under the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) s59, a person if found guilty, shall be liable to imprisonment for the maximum of 5 years.

​

A person would be guilty of an offence if he or she stalks or intimidates another person intending to cause the other person to fear physical or mental harm. That includes causing the person to fear physical or mental harm to another person with whom he or she has a domestic relationship. Regarding a domestic violence issue, the court can make two orders, which are apprehended domestic violence orders and apprehended personal violence orders.

​

​

​

White collar & Coporate crimes

 

The seriousness of the white-collar crime and the purpose of punishment. 

The starting point in determining an appropriate sentence for a given fraud offence is each element of relevant offence, maximum sentence for its offence and other aggravating and mitigating factors of the crime.

​​

  1. In McMahon v R [2011], Justice Hoeben noted that the community now views white collar crime very seriously, having regard to the fact that it is easy to commit and difficult and expensive to track down: at [83].
     

  2. In the case of R v Hinchliffe [2013] NSWCCA 327 at [279]; R v Glynatsis (2013) 230 A Crim R 99 at [73]–[76], the Court held that in serious cases of white-collar crime, the purposes of punishment are best met by way of the imposition of full-time imprisonment rather than an intensive correction order. 
     

  3. Justice McCallum in R v Curtis (No 3) [2016] NSWSC 866 at [51] stated that; general deterrence is another matter. The efficacy of punishment as a deterrent to others has been doubted in some contexts; to a degree, I share those doubts.  In my view, however, punishment by a sentence of imprisonment has real bite as a deterrent to others in the case of white-collar crime. White-collar crime is a field in which, perhaps more than any other, offending is often a choice freely made by well-educated people from privileged backgrounds, prompted by greed rather than the more pernicious influences of poverty, mental illness or addiction that grip other communities. The threat of being sent to gaol, provided it is perceived as a real threat and not one judges will hesitate to enforce, is likely to operate as a powerful deterrent to men and women of business.
     

​

Factors universally applicable to fraud charges.
 

  1. The amount of money involved (R v Hawkins (1989) 45 A Crim R 430, R v Mungomery (2004) 151 A Crim R 376 at [40], R v Woodman [2001] NSWCCA 310, R v Finnie [2002] NSWCCA 533 at [59]).
     

  2. The length of time over the offences are committed: R v Pont (2000) 121 A Crim R 302 at [74], [75], R v Mungomery (2004) 151 A Crim R 376 at [40].
     

  3. What is the motive for the crime: R v Mears (1991) 53 A Crim R 141 at 145, R v Hill [2004] NSWCCA 257 at [6], R v Woodman [2001] NSWCCA 310 at [29].
     

  4. The degree of planning and sophistication: R v Mille (unrep, 1/5/98, NSWCCA), R v Pont (2000) 121 A Crim R 302 at [43]–[44], R v Murtaza [2001] NSWCCA 336 at [15].
     

  5. An accompanying breach of trust: R v El-Rashid (unrep, 7/4/95, NSWCCA), R v Pont (2000) 121 A Crim R 302, R v Hawkins (1989) 45 A Crim R 430.

 

The cases where company’s director committed breach of trust;
 
  1. In R v Pantano (1990) 49 A Crim R 328, at 330, Justice Wood expressed an opinion that those involved in serious white-collar crime must expect condign sentences. The commercial world expects executives and employees in positions of trust, no matter how young they may be, to conform to exacting standards of honesty…. Executives and trusted employees who give way to temptation cannot pass the blame to lax security on the part of management. The element of general deterrence is an important element of sentencing for such offences.
     
  2. R v Houghton [2000] NSWCCA 62.  In this case, a company director involved a conduct fraudulently applying company property. An offender was convicted for 26 counts under s 173 Crimes Act 1900. his sentence was confirmed as a non-parole period of 18 months with a balance of term of six months. Justice Barr in this case, with Fitzgerald JA and Abadee J said at [19]: “sentences imposed for offences involving such serious and persistent breaches of trust must be sufficient to deter others from offending, not least because they are so difficult to detect”.
     
  3. R v Law (unrep, 7/10/93, NSWCCA) involved an offence under s 176A Crimes Act 1900 where the offender, a company director, defrauded clients and insurers of $180,000.  his sentence was two years and six months with a balance of term of 18 months. A Justice in this case, referred to the principles governing breaches of trust in white collar crime cases like R v Pantano (1990) 49 A Crim R 328 and R v Halabi (unrep, 17/2/92, NSWCCA) and Jjustice Carruthers concluded that a lengthy custodial sentence was inevitable having referred to the objective seriousness of the circumstances where the offences committed.
     
  4. In R v Giam (No 2) (1999), Justice Dunford stated that an offence under s 176A of Crimes Act 1900 (repealed), courts have drawn attention in the past to the seriousness of white collar crime, and offences under s 176A in particular, as it involves not only fraud but also breach of the trust involved in being a director of a company. Such offences call for significant sentences, particularly where the amount fraudulently obtained is large.
​
​

Need an urgent legal advice?

call 1300 140 291 or admin@wentworthlaw.com.au
 

We are one of the trusted lawyers for those faces difficult times with prosecution charges.

​

​

  • Homicide  (Murder, Manslaughter, attempt to murder)
     

  • Drug offences  (Importation, Trafficking, Possession, Manufacturing, Supplying)
     

  • Violence (AVO, Assault causing bodily harm, Break and enter, Robbery & Stealing)
     

  • Sexual office  (Sexual assault, Aggravated assault, Consent)
     

  • Bail application  (Local court and complex supreme court application)
     

  • Corporate  (Stealing, Deception, Unauthorised access to information and data)
     

  • Traffic offences (Drink driving, drive while suspended and cancelled)
     

  • Appeal application (Sentence, Severity, Conviction appeal)

​

​

CONTACT US
​

1300 140 291 / admin@wentworthlaw.com.au

Level 10-11, 20 Martin Place, Sydney NSW 2000 

​

bottom of page