Our client is a 36-year-old father of two from New Zealand who works as an Executive Manager of a Global company.
He was charged with offences in 2003 when he was a minor, namely a range of assault offences with an Aggravated Robbery charge.
The police fact sheet stated that our client utilised various weapons to assault other persons to steal their money.
In 2004 during the proceedings being on foot our client left Sydney and moved to New Zealand where he went on to live a crime free life and eventually become an extremely successful businessman.
In early 2022 our client returned to NSW for a business trip not turning his mind to the matter which was not finalised in 2004 and was consequently arrested, charged and given a Court Attendance Notice for the charges he committed as a minor; the key issue was that now police had directed him into the adult jurisdiction where by the Aggravated Robbery charge was a Strictly Indictable matter and carried a penalty of 20 years in custody.
The client immediately called our CDLA office in Sydney and was put through to our criminal lawyer Alex Istifan who advised him as to the uniqueness of his case and the fact that the police could not simply decide that the matter should now be dealt with in the adult court given the relevant laws.
Our Alex Istifan made extensive enquires to ascertain the history of the matter and it was discovered that our client was found guilty in his absence and the matter could now be dealt with in a variety of ways. All options were considered carefully.
Prior to making any decision, our Alex knew that it was critical to find a way to ensure that this case remain in the children’s court to avoid the severity of the penalties that could otherwise be passed in an adult jurisdiction for these types of serious charges.
Our Alex appeared at court on behalf of our client and made extensive and persuasive arguments to the Judge in court in an effort to keep the matter in the Children’s Court.
In the result, after lengthy negotiations, the police agreed and the Magistrate directed our 36 year old client’s matter back to the Children’s Court.
Once the matter retuned to the Children’s Court, our client advised us that he wanted to proceed to sentencing and have the matter dealt with. Our Alex and criminal defence barrister team prepared the case extensively to avoid any severe outcomes and heavily mitigated the sentence.
In court on the day of sentencing we tendered a large bundle of material and made lengthy submissions to the Judge to highlight that how our client is a changed person, and the court should find special circumstances in this case and in doing so exercise extreme leniency.
His Honour agreed with our submissions and ordered that our client not be convicted on the record for any of the charges, which meant that our client completely avoided any jail time and did not have to be concerned about the impact a conviction would have on his career which he has worked extensively hard on to attain, allowing him to continue his life with his partner and children as was before the events came to light.