If you are bound by a restraining order and are charged with breaching the order, potentially very severe penalties apply. Any person who is bound by a Family Violence Restraining Order (‘FVRO’), violence restraining order (‘VRO’) or police order, must strictly comply with the terms of the order. A failure to do so leaves the person liable to be charged with the criminal offence of…
The police in Western Australia have broad powers to arrest a person and then hold them in custody without being charged with a criminal offence. The police can only hold an arrested person in custody without charge for the purposes of: doing a search of the person or a place or vehicle belonging to the person; investigating any offence the person is suspected of having…
Many persons who find themselves subject to either an interim Family Violence Restraining Order (FVRO) or Violence Restraining Order (VRO) end up in a situation where the order should, in fairness to the bound person, be cancelled. This can occur where, for example, the protected person keeps contacting the bound person, encouraging them to breach the order and indicating there is no need for them…
What is a Firearms Prohibition order? Firearms Prohibition Orders or FPO’s were recently introduced by the Firearms Amendment Act 2022, which came into effect in late 2022. The amending act introduced a new Part 8 to the Firearms Act 1973, which governs the licensing of firearms and also contains all of the firearms offences in Western Australia. This includes offences of possessing firearms and ammunition. An FPO is…
In criminal cases, an accused on bail will usually have various conditions, one of which is called a ‘surety’. A surety is someone who, as a condition of an accused being granted bail, enters into a surety undertaking. This means the surety agrees to forfeit an amount of money if an accused fails to appear in court as required by their bail undertaking. This is…
Appeals to the High Court are rare and highly unlikely to succeed, but in an appropriate case can result in the decision of the Court of Appeal being overturned If your appeal against your sentence or conviction in the Court of Appeal was dismissed, this is not the end of your case. There is always the option to lodge an appeal to the High Court….
In criminal cases, a commonly asked question is when an accused person can get their phone back after it has been seized by police. As part of an investigation, police almost always seize an accused person’s phone. They then search the phone for evidence relating to the offence that they are investigating. If a phone contains a large amount of material, the police use special…
Criminal Property Confiscation is a unique area of the law concerned with the seizure of assets which are believed to be the proceeds of crime. There are many complicated rules regarding asset seizure. The onus is usually placed on the person whose assets are seized to prove that the property was not obtained from criminal activity. Assets including cash, land, bank accounts and vehicles, may…
Data access orders are issued where a suspect is in possession of a phone or other device, and refuses to provide the police the PIN code to enable access to the data stored on the device. A ‘data access order’ is an order that is issued by a Magistrate, after an application for the order is made to them by a police officer or public…
A recent addition to the Sentencing Act in Western Australia is the ability for a sentencing court to declare a person a ‘‘Serial Family Violence Offender”. This power was granted to courts with a view to being able to better prevent recidivist family violence offenders from committing offences of family violence. The ability to make the declaration was introduced along with changes to other laws, including…
The state government recently introduced the Criminal Law (Unlawful Consorting and Prohibited Insignia) Act 2021 (WA). This Act was designed to deal a significant blow to ‘bikies’ or members of 1% motorcycle clubs in Western Australia. The law set out to make it illegal for club members to consort or hang out with each other, and to prohibit club members from displaying their colours, tattoos…
In criminal cases, there are only two courts where an accused can be awarded their costs if they win their case. The first is the Magistrates Court, which is commonly referred to as the ‘costs jurisdiction’. This is a very unique court as ordinarily in criminal cases in the District and Supreme Courts, there are no costs awards. That is, even if you win your…
A common question that arises in a criminal case is whether the police had the power to search someone’s person, or their house or car. If the police did not have the power to search a person, vehicle or house, any evidence obtained from the unlawful search may be inadmissible. The police have various powers to search contained in different laws. Some of the commonly…
In previous articles, we have referred to the police powers of arrest, and to a person’s rights when they have been arrested. A further question which commonly arises is how much force can the police use to arrest a person? Is there any limit? In Western Australia, the principal power of arrest for police officers arises under the Criminal Investigation Act. That Act gives the police…
In a criminal case, if you have spoken to the police, the prosecution may attempt to use any comments you make against you in your trial. This is so whether any comments you make are recorded on video or not. The only comments you make that can generally be used against you are what are called ‘admissions’. These are comments you make that are against…
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