What is the law on stealing dogs and using them for fighting?
Today, most people would condemn the practice of watching animals tearing each other apart. Those who organise such gruesome events are, at law, committing a serious criminal offence. But the practice of dog baiting, or dog fighting, still lingers on...
Do Men Commit More Crimes than Women?
Men have always had a reputation for being more inclined to criminal behaviour than women, especially when it comes to committing violent offences such as assault or murder. The statistics would appear to support this, with only one fifth of...
Finders Keepers in Law – Can I Be Charged With Theft?
Finding something valuable like a sum of money is exciting, but as tempting as it might be, keeping it without taking adequate steps to locate the owner could leave you facing criminal charges. Although many people argue that there should...
Car Rebirthing in NSW
Car rebirthing, where vehicles are stolen, stripped of identifying numbers and then sold, is believed to be fairly widespread in NSW. Earlier this year, an alleged syndicate operating out of Sydney’s west was arrested and police seized 32 cars and...
NSW Criminal Court Statistics – News and Trends
The NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research (BOCSAR) has recently released a summary of crime statistics for the March 2014 quarter. This report shows a number of interesting trends in criminal activity, sentencing and time taken to finalise court...
Driving Furiously and other Less Prosecuted Offences
Throughout history, civilisations have come up with some fairly unusual crimes and possibly even more unusual punishments. Of course, many of these are never, if ever prosecuted. In a country like Australia, where there is an abundance of laws and...
What Does the Law Say About Stolen Dogs in Sydney?
Perhaps professional dognapping is not the first thing that springs to mind if you were to imagine embarking on a life of crime. But stealing people’s pets for financial gain, or for dog baiting is not unheard of, and has...
Why a Proceeds of Crime Barrister is a Wise Idea
If you have been convicted of a serious offence, such as drug trafficking, or fraud, there is the very real prospect that the prosecution will apply to the court for a confiscation order for the proceeds of your crime. Under...
Creepware – The Latest Cyber Threat
Cyber crime is once again in the spotlight with a recent crackdown on computer hacking by the FBI in what has been termed their largest operation against cyber crime so far. The operation, which took place on a global scale,...
Finders keepers – what should you do if you find a large amount of money?
The ‘finders keepers’ rule may have been popular in primary school but does this translate into a rock-solid legal defence? Unfortunately not. If you find a large amount of money or other valuable property, simply keeping it could land you...
