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Firing At House Or Building – s 93GA Crimes Act (NSW)

Confronted with a charge of firing at a house or building offence is daunting. Our highly experienced lawyers specialise in firearms cases for over 20 years. They are experts in getting the charges dropped early in the case, something they have successfully achieved countless times. Speak to them now to maximise your chances at avoiding a criminal record and prison.

Your Options in Court

You can only be found guilty to a charge of firing at a house or building if police can prove each of the following elements of the offence in court:

  • You fired a firearm or weapon; and
  • It was fired at a house or other building; and
  • You fired it with reckless disregard for other people’s safety. Here it doesn’t matter if someone was or wasn’t inside the house or building.

You will be found not guilty and the charge dismissed if police are unable to prove any one of the above elements of the offence beyond reasonable doubt.

Defences to this charge

You will be Not Guilty if:

  • Self defence: Where you fired it at the house or building because you believed it was necessary to protect yourself, your property or someone else. The court will also determine if your belief was reasonable in the circumstances perceived by you at the time.
  • Duress or Necessity: Where you fired it due to being forced or threatened to, or where you did it to stop someone else being seriously harmed.
  • Identity: Where it wasn’t you who fired it.

Your charge will be dismissed if any of those defences apply to your case. Our senior lawyers specialise in firearm cases, they have proved their clients innocence many times, and successfully convinced police to drop the charges early in the case countless times. Speak to one of our experts now for realistic advice.

If pleading guilty to a firing at a house or building offence, to ensure you maximise your chances at getting the best possible outcome at avoiding prison and conviction, see the following tips on the best ways to prepare your case.

25% Discount on punishment

You can receive up to a 25% discount on your punishment by the Judge simply by entering a plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity in your case to a charge of firing at house or building offence. This results in a lighter punishment with better chances at avoiding prison or conviction.

The later a plea of guilty is entered, the less discount you will receive. This is why it’s very important to get specialist advice on your firearms charge as early as possible from an experienced firearms lawyer.

Good character references

You can get a much better result in court, allowing the Judge to give a more lenient punishment by getting good character reference letters for the Judge to read. Each letter should express your good deeds, remorse, shame and your understanding of the wrongness of your offence.

Our senior lawyers will guide you along the way. These letters should come from yourself, your family, friend, work, and charity.

Negotiate to drop charges

Your firearms charge can potentially get dropped or downgraded to a less serious offence by thorough negotiations with police at an earlier stage of your case. Our senior lawyers specialise in doing this and have successfully done so for many cases for over 20 years.

To maximise your chances at successfully getting your charge dropped early, it’s important to know the police evidence well, find each of the problems in it, and then tactfully approach police with this knowledge.

Negotiate facts

By having a solid understanding of the police evidence, an experienced firearms lawyer can point all the inconsistencies of it to police when negotiating to change the police facts. By changing these facts to be more in line of what actually occurred, your offending conduct can then reflect you in a better light. This often then results in a much more lighter outcome by the Judge reading it.

Normally the police set of facts is initially drafted by the police who can often make you sound worse than the truth, resulting in a heavier punishment. The set of facts are what your pleading guilty to and is important to change for a better outcome to avoid conviction and prison.

Psychologist reports

A strong court report from a experienced leading psychologist or psychiatrist for the Judge to read can significantly improve your court result with a much lighter outcome. To get the full benefit of such a report, it should express your mental state, shame, insight, remorse and explanation for your conduct.

Our senior lawyers use only the most leading and respected psychologists and psychiatrists best suited to your case. This ensures your chances of getting the best possible outcome is maximised.

Maximum penalty

If your charged with firing with reckless disregard for anyone’s safety, the maximum punishment is a term of imprisonment of up to 14 years. If you fire with reckless disregard during a public disorder, or in the course of an organised criminal activity, the maximum punishment is up to 16 years.

It’s critical to know that the Judges will only give the maximum punishment in rare cases that are considered the most serious kind. Below are other options of punishment.

Types of penalties

The Judge can give you any one of the following kinds of penalties, depending on the above points in preparing and presenting your case:

  1. Section 10 Dismissal
  2. Conditional Release Order
  3. Fine
  4. Community Correction Order
  5. Intensive Correction Order
  6. Full Time Imprisonment

Speak to our Sydney team of specialist firearms lawyers about your charge of firing at a house or building. You can expect your case to be extremely well prepared and powerfully presented by a senior lawyer who will emphasise on getting your charge dropped or downgraded early.