Breach of section 12 bond – No action taken – District Court
Our client three months ago received a term of imprisonment for seven months for a serious charge of assault which the court was persuaded to suspend on condition he not commit further offences and comply with his condition to be of good behaviour for a period of those seven months. This meant he did not go to prison but required to comply with the directions of probation and parole to attend appointments when scheduled. The four months since this bond was entered into, our client failed to attend and report to probation and parole services office on eight scheduled appointments due to his work commitments in order for him to maintain his Job and income to earn end meat. This was a breach of his bond, now risking full time prison.
Normally, once you breach your good behaviour bond, the court has limited options to first consider whether to take action on the bond or not. If the court is convinced not to take any action then you are released and continue with the same bond. Nothing further happens to you.
If the court revokes the bond and takes action on it, it is left with limited options of requiring you to spend the term of imprisonment full time behind bars, intensive corrections order or home detention. Significant amount of work is involved in convincing the court not to send you to prison.
On this occasion, we assisted and guided our client who obtained a letter from his boss who confirmed that his work, a truck driving company which often required our client to drive up to 1000km a day, were unaware that he had court commitments and but now are aware of this and will accommodate for him to attend his.
We called our client who gave evidence in the witness box that he used to prioritise his work commitments over his court commitments. He further gave great evidence that he is now in a better position to attend all appointments in compliance with his bond.
The court was ultimately convinced not to take any action. Our client was given one last chance.