Criminal Lawyers Parramatta
Sydney Criminal Lawyers®

Our client is a 51 year old owner of a security company who lives in South-West Sydney.

He was turning right at an intersection when his car collided with an oncoming car driven by a 20-year old P-plater.

Police attended the scene, determined that our client was at-fault and later issued him with a future court attendance notice for negligent driving not occasioning death or grievous bodily harm.

He self-represented him Bankstown Local Court, where he was found guilty on the basis that he failed to keep a proper lookout for the oncoming vehicle, fined $1,500 and disqualified from driving for 12 months.

He then saw us for advice and, after taking detailed instructions, it became evident there was a reasonable possibility the magistrate had made an error by finding him guilty.

We then filed an ‘all grounds appeal’ and obtained the transcript of evidence, which supported a reasonable inference that the oncoming vehicle was speeding and that our client was indeed keeping a lookout but could not have avoided the collision.

The appeal ultimately came before Parramatta District Court where we tendered detailed written submissions outlining the law and the fact that the evidence did not support a finding of guilt, especially given the absence of a prosecution expert and the conflicting evidence.

After making additional submissions, His Honour agreed that the prosecution did not prove its case to the required standard. He therefore upheld the appeal and quashed the conviction, fine and disqualification.

Our client is a 22-year-old law and psychology student from Bella Vista. He was driving home from the gym when stopped by police for a random breath test. At the time, he was already disqualified due to a previous major traffic offence.

Police asked him to produce his driver licence. Our client said he left it at home because he was just going to the gym.

Police then asked him to provide his name and date of birth, and our client provided false details which did not match any person on the police system.

He was then charged with ‘driving whilst disqualified’ and ‘driver or rider state false name or home address.’ He pleaded guilty to both charges.

Our lawyers assisted him to obtain various documents in preparation for his sentencing proceedings.

We made lengthy submissions in court primarily focusing on the potential effect of a criminal conviction on his intended future career in law.

Despite the fact that our client already had a major traffic offence on his record, we persuaded the Magistrate in Parramatta Local Court to deal with both charges by way of section 10 bonds – which means he has no further criminal record.

The Magistrate in Parramatta Local Court awarded our 32 year old client a 'section 10' for high range p.c.a. which means that he avoids a criminal conviction and gets his licence back.

Our client works as an Information Technology expert in a large Sydney-based company.

He lives with his wife and young daughter in Westmead.

The family attended an event in Parramatta where our client drank a number of alcoholic drinks throughout the course of the evening.

He stopped drinking between 10.30pm and 11pm, and only drank water after that.

He 'felt fine', although 'a little tired', and commenced driving home shortly after midnight.

He was pulled over for a roadside random breath test just before 12.20am.

He blew a positive reading, and was arrested and taken to the police station where he registered a reading of 0.170.

He was then charged with high range drink driving.

He saw a number of lawyers before seeing us.

He informed us that his job requires him to drive between various branches of his company at short notice to perform IT maintenance duties, and that his position may be reviewed if he has any criminal convictions.

We asked whether his employment contract might confirm this.

He produced the relevant parts of his contract which indeed confirmed both of those matters.

We advised him to undertake a Traffic Offender Program, to gather character references (including one from a work colleague) and to prepare a 'letter of apology' to the court describing his remorse and the impact that a conviction would have on his career and family.

We also referred him to see a counsellor.

We provided him and his 'referees' with detailed advice about how to prepare references.

We obtained a positive letter from the counsellor.

In court, it took a great deal of effort to finally convince the Magistrate to award our client a 'section 10', and to therefore allow him to keep his licence and avoid a conviction.

He was extremely satisfied with the result because he had previously been advised that it would be impossible to achieve a section 10 in his situation.

In Parramatta District Court, Sydney Criminal Lawyers® obtained a 'Section 10' ( no criminal record or licence disqualification) for a 38 year old Blacktown man who pleaded guilty to a 3rd drink driving charge was dealt with under ‘Section 10’ (i.e. without conviction, fine or disqualification).

The case was initially in Blacktown Local Court where the Presiding Magistrate had imposed a conviction, 12 months disqualification, an $800 fine and $76 court costs.

Sydney Criminal Lawyers® successfully appealed that decision and our client, who needs his licence for employment, can retain his job and continue to support his wife and two young children.

Our client is a 53 year old man who suffered a serious work accident in 2008, during which he sustained a range of serious injuries.

He has been dealing with Work Cover ever since that accident.

Frustrated by the perceived attitude of that agency, he made a series of telephone threats to Work Cover employees shortly after the Lindt Café Siege - the most serious of which was “I’ll go get a gun and come down to your office and make Martin Place look like a joke”.

Needless to say, those threats were taken very seriously by Work Cover employees and by police, who arrested and charged him with ‘use carriage service to menace / harass / offend’ under section 474.17 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act.

Despite the seriousness of the charge, our lawyers persuaded the Magistrate in Parramatta Local Court to deal with our client under section 19B of the Commonwealth Crimes Act, which means that he escapes a criminal record altogether.

A 53 year old man from Canley Vale called our firm after he was convicted and sentenced to 1 year and 3 months prison in Liverpool Local Court when represented by another criminal law firm.

He had pleaded 'not guilty' to 'armed with intent to commit an indictable offence', 'resisting arrest' and 'common assault'.

He had prior convictions for assault and intimidation.

The present charges arose when he allegedly ran at his neighbour with a large meat cleaver and swung it towards the man's head up to eight times, missing him by just centimetres, then pursuing him for a further 15 metres before the man got away.

Police were called and struggled to arrest and detain him.

His local court hearing lasted nearly a full day and he was found guilty.

He called our firm approximately one week after he lodged an appeal against his conviction.

In accordance with our practice, we obtained all 'transcripts' of the Local Court case - which contain everything said during the Local Court hearing.

Transcripts are very important because appeals to the District Court against conviction (ie against a 'not guilty' verdict) are almost exclusively based upon what is contained in the Local Court transcripts.

Our Defence Team reviewed the 'police brief of evidence' (which are the witness statements etc gathered by police earlier-on) and the transcripts, and quickly came to the view that his hearing was prepared and conducted poorly, and that his prospects of defeating the conviction were very slim.

It also became abundantly clear that, due to the witness statements against him, his lawyers should have negotiated less-serious charges and advised him to plead guilty, rather than taking his case all the way to an expensive defended hearing.

We provided our client with detailed and open advice about his prospects on appeal.

That advice was essentially that we should focus on keeping him out of prison by pushing for a more lenient penalty (which is called a 'severity appeal') rather than trying to get the verdict of 'not guilty' overturned altogether (called a 'conviction appeal').

Our client accepted that advice and agreed to see a counsellor for 'anger management'.

We met with him and his family several times in the lead-up to his court date.

We gathered a range of favourable materials including a counselling report, employment records and various references.

We argued his case in Parramatta District Court where we convinced the Judge to overturn the sentence of imprisonment, and to give him a 15 month 'suspended sentence' instead.

This means that he stays out of prison and can get on with his life.

Our client and his family were very pleased and relieved about the outcome.

Our client was charged with 'Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm' after wrestling a bus driver to the ground and then striking him to the stomach, legs and arms causing bruising and abrasions.

The incident occurred way back on 8th October 2013 when our client took offence to a bus driver parking opposite his house.

He approached and entered the bus and then wrestled the driver out onto the footpath.

The incident was captured on CCTV footage and witnessed by members of the public, who gave statements to police.

After charges were pressed, our client approached another criminal law firm who advised him that he may have a legal defence - which was manifestly incorrect.

Sadly, our client was charged thousands of dollars during the course of the proceedings, and then told on the day before the hearing that his lawyer was busy elsewhere and could not attend.

He called us at 8.45am on the morning of the hearing, and our team did everything we could to ensure he was looked after.

After reviewing the materials and footage, and obtaining our client's instructions, it became abundantly clear that he did not have a valid legal defence (our client had already suspected that this was the case).

We ensured that an experienced lawyer attended Parramatta Local Court that morning, and did what should have been done a year earlier - successfully persuading the prosecutor to downgrade the charge of 'Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm' to the less-serious charge of 'Common Assault' and amending the police 'facts' so that the case was much less serious.

Our client then entered a plea of guilty to the lesser charge, and the Magistrate was persuaded to grant him a 'section 10'. This means that he avoids a criminal conviction altogether - which is what he wanted from the start.

The Magistrate in Parramatta Local Court was persuaded to not record a criminal conviction against our 50 year old client from Mount Druitt who was initially charged with 'Attempt to Choke' and Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm.

'Attempt to Choke' charges are considered to be very serious and carry a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment.

The charges arose from a domestic incident when our client became enraged after finding his 16 year old daughter in bed with a male at the family home.

The daughter alleged that her father kicked and punched her several times to the legs, rib cage and face causing bruises, redness and swelling.

She further alleged that her father then attempted to choke her to the point where she almost passed-out.

The boyfriend begged to leave and ran out of the home.

Police were called and took photos of injuries to the daughter's body, face and neck.

Despite the photos and eye-witness evidence from the boyfriend, our Defence Team managed to have both charges withdrawn on the basis that our client pleaded guilty to the much less serious charge of 'Common Assault'.

This meant that the case stayed in the Local Court rather than going up to the District Court.

The Magistrate was then persuaded to grant a 'section 10' which means that our client avoids a criminal conviction altogether.

Here are some recent examples of our criminal defence team getting charges dismissed due to mental health under 'section 32:

The Magistrate in Ryde Local Court dismissed charges of larceny against our 37 year old client who was caught stealing a trolley-load of goods from Myer. The case was persuasively argued by Mr Nedim and the Magistrate stated 'this is only the second section 32 that I have granted out of about 20 since I came to Ryde in April'.

Downing Centre Local Court dismissed charges of Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm and Common Assault against our 24 year old client despite it being his second assault case within 2 years. He received a criminal conviction for his previous case after his lawyers failed to inform him that his mental condition could be used to have his case dismissed.

Parramatta Local Court dismissed drug possession charges against our 33 year old client who was caught with 9 ecstacy tablets in his pocket. He was initially charged with 'supply' but Sydney Criminal Lawyers® had that charge withdrawn. The court found that there was a link between our client's underlying depression and his use of drugs, and that the proposed treatment plan was adequate.

Wagga Wagga Local Court dismissed a charge of 'use carriage service to make hoax threat' against our 45 year old client who contacted the NSW Fire Service advising that a bomb had been placed at a fire station. The court found a significant link between our client's post traumatic stress and his actions.

Our Senior Criminal Lawyers persuasively argued each of the cases in court.

In Parramatta District Court, Sydney Criminal Lawyers® obtained a 'section 10' (no conviction) for a 21 year old security guard who punched a soccer fan in the face resulting in a broken nose and extensive bruising.

The incident occurred during a tense match between the Western Wanderers and Sydney FC.

A patron ran onto the ground and security guards followed.

Our client attempted to jump over the fence onto the playing field to join the other guards, but felt the complainant holding his foot. It was claimed that the complainant was just trying to help our client over the fence.

Our client turned and punched the man in the face causing extensive injuries requiring hospitalisation and surgery.

The case is an example that 'section 10' is available despite serious injuries being occasioned.