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Obtain Financial Advantage Or Property By Deception – s 192E Crimes Act (NSW)

Fraud charges, such as obtaining financial advantage or property by deception can cause significant stress with possibilities of a criminal conviction effecting your job and future travel plans.

Our Sydney team of criminal defence lawyers appear regularly in court for these charges. They are established experts in proving their client’s innocence, avoiding a criminal conviction, while specialising in getting charges dropped early, something they have achieved many times for over 20 years.

Call us now on (02) 8606 2218 to book a free first consultation with an experienced Fraud Defence Lawyer.

Your Options in Court

You will be guilty to the charge of obtaining financial advantage or property by deception only if police can prove each of the following elements to this charge beyond reasonable doubt:

  • You received a property or financial advantage, or you caused a financial disadvantage, and
  • This was caused by your deceptive conduct, and
  • Your conduct was dishonest according to standards of ordinary people, and you knew it to be dishonest according to those standards

You will be found not guilty if police are unable to prove any one of the above elements to this charge.

Defences to this charge

You will be Not Guilty if:

  • No Deception: your conduct wasn’t the “operative cause” of you receiving the financial advantage or property.
  • You did not advert your mind to the probable consequence of receiving the financial advantage or property, yet willing to take the risk of it occurring.
  • Mistaken belief: where you honestly believed you were entitled to the financial advantage or property, and that belief was reasonably held in the circumstances
  • Mental illness: where at the time, you were suffering a mental illness, causing you to not know the quality or nature of your actions. Or if you knew the nature and quality of your actions, you could not reason with any moderate degree of sense and composure as to the wrongness of your actions.
  • Necessity or Duress.

Our senior lawyers specialty is in convincing police to drop or downgrade charges at an early stage to save you money and time. Our lawyers have a proven track record in successfully achieving this over the years. Speak to them on how to increase your chances to achieve this for your case.

Call us now on (02) 8606 2218.

Speak to an experienced criminal lawyer before pleading guilty to obtaining property or financial advantage by deception charges. However, if you decide to plead guilty, then take note of the following critical hints and tips on how to best prepare and present your case to maximise your chances at getting the best possible outcome. This includes avoiding a criminal conviction by getting a section 10.

25% discount on punishment

By pleading guilty early enough in your case, you will be entitled to receive a discount on your punishment by up to 25%. This will result in a much lighter outcome with greater chances at avoiding a criminal conviction under s10.

Pleading guilty later in the case causes this discount to reduce with time. This is why it’s extremely important to get experienced and reliable advice as early as possible in your case.

Good character references

A powerful good character reference letter from people in your life, expressing your good character, your remorse, contrition, shame and insight into your offending behaviour can allow the Judge reading it insight into your otherwise excellent character. This allows the Judge to give further leniency in your punishment.

Our senior lawyers will guide you in preparing each letter, and it’s important to ensure each one is reviewed before handing it to the Judge. Character reference letters can come as an apology letter from you, letters from your family, friend, colleague or employer expressing the impact of a conviction on your role.

Negotiate to drop charges

With over 20 years experience, our team of senior lawyers have successfully convinced police countless times to drop charges of obtaining property or financial advantage by deception. The best way to increase your chances at successfully achieving this is getting a specialist defence lawyer to carefully read the police evidence, pull it apart, by pointing out all the holes in it to police.

Our senior lawyers have developed a specialisation with a higher success rate at getting charges dropped early by their tactful approach at each case taken on. Call now to speak to one of our senior lawyers on how to strengthen your chances of this early.

Negotiate facts

After a plea of guilty is entered, the police will hand up a set of police facts to the Judge expressing your wrongdoing and the value of the property or financial advantage obtained. This set of facts forms the basis of your plea of guilty which the Judge will read right before deciding on your punishment. Because this document is usually drafted by police, it can often be one sided, inaccurate and puts you in a bad light, often resulting in a heavier punishment by the Judge.

For those reasons, our specialist senior lawyers carefully read the police evidence, point out all the holes in it, and then negotiate with police to change the set of facts, putting you in a much better light, usually resulting in a much lighter punishment and better outcome in court.

Psychologist reports

Getting a Psychiatrist or psychologist court report from someone highly experienced and respected to hand up to the Judge can significantly improve your court outcome, getting you a much more lenient punishment, in some cases avoiding a criminal conviction with s10.

Our senior lawyers will guide you with the best psychologist or psychiatrist for your circumstances, and ensure that the report addresses the main points that allow the Judge to further reduce your punishment. This includes, your mental state at the time, your insight into your offence, your remorse and shame, and significantly a treatment plan if required.

Maximum penalty

The Judge can give a maximum punishment for this offence of up to 10 years imprisonment. Although the maximum a local court can give is only up to 2 years, the maximum punishments are rarely given, and only given to the most serious offenders. See below for other types of punishment available.

Types of penalties

Depending on the above points in preparation and presentation of your case, the Judge can give you any one of the following types of punishment:

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

Speak to one of Sydney’s leading criminal defence lawyers for realistic advice, careful preparation and strong court representation for charges of obtaining property or financial advantage by deception. Our team of senior lawyers have extensive experience in knowing exactly how to maximise your chances at getting the best possible outcome to your case.

Call us now on (02) 8606 2218 to book a free first consultation with an experienced Fraud Defence Lawyer.