Our client is 38 year old man who was born in New Zealand.
He had struggled throughout his life with mental health issues.
He had a lengthy criminal history for fraud offences. Indeed, he had previously spent a number of years in jail for fraud offences.
We recently represented him in a District Court Trial for numerous fraud charges. He was ultimately found ‘not guilty by reason of mental illness’.
However, during that trial he was charged with over 60 fresh fraud charges.
Police alleged that our client had drafted a number of fake cheques worth over $3million.
It was also alleged that our client had set up fake betting accounts in the names of his family members.
It was further alleged that our client had set up fake companies and purchased goods and services worth $188,000 on credit.
Police refused him bail.
We immediately went to work preparing a bail application.
First, we obtained a further report from our psychiatrist setting out that our client had the defence of mental illness open to him for the fresh charges as well.
We then proceeded with the current Trial. Our client was found ‘not guilty by reason of mental illness’ at the Trial. Click here to read about that case.
Following this we made an application for bail at Tamworth Local Court.
The prosecution strongly opposed bail citing our client’s criminal history and the fact that the fresh offences had occurred while our client was on bail for almost identical offences.
We relied on the opinion of our psychiatrist and the result of the recently concluded District Court Trial to argue that it was inevitable our client would be found ‘not guilty by reason of mental illness’ for the fresh charges.
The Magistrate was persuaded to grant our client bail under strict conditions, including an undertaking that he comply with any psychiatric advice and that his family surrender $10,000 to ensure he did not abscond or re-offend.
Subsequent to this, the matter proceeded to a District Court trial where our client was found not guilty due to mental illness of all charges.
Last week Astor Legal appeared at Toronto Local Court on behalf of a client charged with serious fraud offences. Our client was known to Police they had previously charged him with fraud offences.
At the time of these offences he was on bail. Police alleged that our client had set up an ‘Airtasker’ account and enlisted a number of persons to carry out fraudulent acts on his behalf. The allegations involved a significant degree of planning and sophistication.
The end result was that thousands of dollars had been misappropriated and transferred to a number of different accounts before the funds were allegedly extracted by our client. Due to the serious nature of the charges, our client was bail refused.
Despite this, we were able to obtain a report from a clinical nurse who confirmed that our client suffered from schizoaffective disorder. The report went on to suggest a treatment plan upon his release from custody. We then made submissions on the Section 32 Application for the charges to be dismissed based on his mental condition.
Despite strong opposition from the prosecutor, the seriousness of the charges and the fact that our client was on bail, the Magistrate was persuaded to accede to the s32 application. As such, the charges were dismissed.
Our client was a developer working for various cryptocurrency companies.
In the course of his employment, he transferred 300 million tokens with a total value of approximately $1.4 million to himself illegally.
After a number of years, the company became aware of this and confronted him. By this time the value of the tokens was well over $3 million.
Regrettably, the client did not come to us when he was confronted and agreed to an interview with the company. During the interview, he made admissions to the unauthorised transfer of tokens. It was only once he spoke to us some days later that we explained that doing the interview likley provided the company with evidence which they would not have otherwise.
Given there was no prospect of defending the matter, our client was resigned to police involvement and a significant jail sentence. However, we took a different view.
We contacted the company advising we acted on behalf of our client. We sought a settlement deed of release whereby there would be no report of the matter to police or disclosure to any third parties. The company originally asked for the total $3 million our client had profited from the tokens. However, we were able to limit the amount of money to $1.4 million plus legal costs.
Ultimately, we were able to resolve the matter within a few weeks with no police involvement.
Our client was able to continue with his life without any criminal charges against him.
Our client is 38 year old man who was born in New Zealand. He had struggled throughout his life with mental health issues.
He had a lengthy criminal history for fraud offences. Indeed, he had previously spent a number of years in jail for fraud offences.
We previously represented him in a District Court Trial for numerous fraud charges. He was ultimately found ‘not guilty by reason of mental illness’. Click here to read about that case.
However, during that trial he was charged with over 100 fresh fraud charges.
Police alleged that our client had drafted a number of fake cheques worth over $3million.
It was also alleged that our client had set up fake betting accounts in the names of his family members.
It was further alleged that our client had set up fake companies and purchased goods and services worth $188,000 on credit.
Police refused him bail.
We immediately went to work preparing a bail application which was successful. You can read about that by clicking here.
First, we obtained a further report from our psychiatrist setting out that our client had the defence of mental illness open to him for the fresh charges as well.
The DPP indicated that they would obtain their own psychiatrist report. Before this occurred, we pre-emptively obtained a report from a second psychiatrist which again confirmed the defence was open.
With the weight of evidence on our side, the Crown psychiatrist was forced to agree that the defence was open.
The trial proceeded at Downing Centre District Court where the prosecution was forced to concede that the defence was open and the Judge was left with no choice but to find our client not guilty by reason of mental illness in relation to all 102 fraud charges.
Astor Legal last week appeared at Parramatta Local Court to represent a client who was facing serious fraud charges totalling over $1million.
Our client was the director of a home building corporation at the time of the offences. In the course of her job, the corporation was required to obtain building certificates before commencing work.
Unfortunately, our client was overwhelmed and unable to obtain the certificates within the timeframe required. Following this, she panicked and falsified the building certificates. She did this for three jobs in 2014, 2016 and 2017.
Eventually her offending was discovered by NSW Fair Trading. They conducted an interview with her where she confessed and made full admissions. When asked what she thought would be the punishment, she said, “going to gaol”.
Ultimately she was charged with 16 fraud charges under the Crimes Act 1900 and the Home Building Act 1989.
We were able to negotiate with prosecutors which resulted in her only pleading guilty to 8 counts.
We then began preparing her subjective case which included a psychologist report as well as evidence of numerous awards she had received as a surf life saver.
This – in combination with the persuasive advocacy of our Parramatta criminal lawyers – ultimately resulted in our client avoiding a term of full-time imprisonment.
She was sentenced to an Intensive Corrections Order (ICO) for 16 months. This was an exceptional result as generally fraud offences totalling over $100,000 result in full-time imprisonment.
Our client was overjoyed with the result as she is able to enjoy her freedom.
Get A Free Case EvaluationHave a legal issue? 
Astor Legal
(02) 7804 2823
