Home Detention Orders

Our client was a 37 year old man charged with 33 counts of ‘Obtain Benefit by Deception’ more commonly known as fraud. His employers alleged that he claimed fraudulent overtime over a period of 4 years, amounting to fraud in excess of $65 000.

In 2005, our client was convicted of 8 counts of ‘Obtain Benefit by Deception,’ for which he received 100 hours community service. It was always going to be an uphill battle to keep our client out of prison.

Over a period of almost 4 months, our lawyer negotiated with police and reduced the number of charges from 33 to 2. She then appeared before Chief Magistrate Henson and made extensive submissions that the fraud was committed out of ‘need not greed,’ that our client was facing bankruptcy and that the community would not be served by a sentence of full-time imprisonment as it would not allow our client to repay what he owed.

His Honour took the lunch time adjournment to consider non-custodial alternatives. After returning from the lunch adjournment, other solicitors at the bar table were making bets about how long our client would go to prison for.

The consensus was 12-15 months. His Honour returned to the bench and gave a lengthy judgment, specifically stating, ‘A term of imprisonment is the only option. I was impressed with the fine submissions and will do what you ask and put the matter over for a Home Detention assessment.’

Ultimately, our client was found suitable for Home Detention. He was tremendously relieved that we had kept him out of jail.