Our 28-year-old client who lives and works in Sydney CBD was charged for stealing $359.90 worth of clothing from MYER Sydney. He was armed at the time with a magnetic security tag detacher which he used to remove tags from the clothing within the change rooms of the store.
When police charged him with Larceny plus a count of being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence, he was understandably stressed and scared.
Upon contacting our firm, an immediate free initial appointment was arranged for him to speak with our criminal defence lawyer, Tayla Regan in our Parramatta criminal defence law firm office.
Tayla immediately advised our client through all the options and explained the court process in depth. Our client felt deep remorse and guilt for his actions, and having no criminal record, he instructed to plead guilty to both offences in the hope he would still avoid a criminal conviction against his name.
Larceny is a charge carrying a maximum penalty of up to 5-years jail, while armed with intent carries a maximum penalty of up to 7-years jail.
Our client had purchased the magnetic security tag detacher online about 1 week prior to committing the offence. He purchased the item on impulse and in the wake of a potential redundancy from work due to cost cutting at his current job.
Our client is studious, having completed a bachelor of business in university. He works in marketing and due to being subject to backgrounds checks in his line of work, a criminal record would severely detriment any future employment opportunities.
These were important factors that our team of criminal defence lawyers used in preparing the case.
Tayla, prepared extremely well for her client’s case. She quickly arranged an effective expert psychologist report to be prepared and used for the sentence in court. A letter from our client’s treating psychologist was also obtained outlining the dates of treatment to show the court of our client’s good prospects of rehabilitation.
Other materials, such as good character reference letters for court were also prepared and used in court.
The psychologist report obtained revealed the fact our client was clearly suffering mental health issues which went untreated for all this time. These were contributing factors to our client’s state of mind at the time of the offending which allowed the Magistrate to extend leniency to our client on sentence.
On our client’s instructions, after pleading guilty to larceny and the other charge, our Tayla gave persuasive submissions to the court which convinced the Magistrate to not record a criminal record against our client’s name.
Accordingly, the court imposed a Conditional Release Order without a criminal record with a 15 months good behaviour bond period requiring our client to continue undergoing treatment with his psychologist during that period.
This was the best possible outcome for our client, which has allowed him to continuing pursuing his career without the problems of a conviction.
He is now able to focus on treating his mental health and is able to move on with his life.