Offences: Contravene DVO and obstruct police
Solicitor: Erin Mitchell
Court: Southport Magistrates Court
Date: May 2018
Contravene DVO and Obstruct Police
Case Study Overview:
Our client was charged with contravening a domestic violence order (DVO). This was his 7th charge for that offence. It was alleged the offending consisted of him making a number of unanswered calls to the Aggrieved, made the day prior to his last court appearance.
On that last court date, he was convicted of a number of breaches of a DVO and sentenced to 12 months probation. At that time, the charges related to messages sent to the Aggrieved asking to get back together and for her to allow him to be a part of his daughter’s life. We made submissions to the Court at his most recent sentence that had the Court been aware of the new charge at the time of his last sentence, the Court would have imposed the same penalty, as it was like offending at around the same time as the previous offences.
The Court accepted our submission and convicted our client of breaching the DVO, but ordered that he not be further punished for that offence.
There was also an unrelated charge of obstruct police before the Courts, which constituted a breach of the probation order previously made by the courts. Police had attended our client’s home to speak with him about an investigation and he resisted their attempts to arrest him. Thankfully, Probation were able to report to the Court at sentence that he had otherwise been doing very well on probation and as such, the court was prepared to issue him a fine of $500. Probation have indicated he will receive a verbal warning about this breach of his probation order, but if there is a next time, he will be brought back to the court and resentenced for the original offences.
WARNING:
This is a summary of an actual case. Details have been omitted to protect the privacy of our client. We select cases which are informative and no guarantee is provided that similar results are achievable in all cases. Every case is different and you should obtain legal advice specific to your matter and circumstances.