Proceeds of crime

If you agree that you have committed the offence and the police are able to prove all the elements of the offence, it is best to plead guilty at an early opportunity to receive the maximum discount. Currently the maximum discount available for an early plea of guilty is 25% of the sentence.
Furthermore, the early guilty plea shows the Court that you have remorse and contrition for your actions.
Our Lawyers at National Criminal Lawyers work closely with you to ensure that we obtain all necessary paper work at increasing the chances of obtaining a non-conviction or section 10.

Where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the property is proceeds of crime the maximum penalty if heard in the Local Court is 2 years imprisonment and/or a fine of $5,500.00.

Where you are reckless to the property being proceeds of crime the maximum penalty in the District Court is 10 years imprisonment.

Where you know the property is proceeds of crimes the maximum penalty is 15 years imprisonment and when you know intending to conceal that fact, the maximum penalty is 20 years imprisonment.

Please note that the penalties mentioned are reserved for the worse case offending and are unlikely to be the penalty you receive.

If you decide to plead not guilty you will need to prepare to go to a Defended Hearing.
A defended hearing is where all the witnesses of that case are called to give evidence. The witnesses are both examined by the prosecution and tested by your defence lawyers.
National Criminal Lawyers have defended numerous people charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime and are experts at these hearings.

Some of the possible defences available for those charged with dealing with the proceeds of crime can include:

• • • If you were compelled to act in a certain way due to the circumstances, or the threats of another you may be able to argue “Duress”;
    • If your actions were necessary to prevent a greater harm from occurring, you may have the defence of “Necessity”;
    • If you were defending yourself or another OR yours or another’s property you may have a Defence of “Self-Defence”

The Courts are not bound by statistics however there must be reasonable consistency in sentences. A Magistrate or Judge should have regard to what has been done in other cases. In Green [2011] HCA 45, the plurity judgement of French CJ, Kiefel and Creennan JJ stated:

“Equal Justice” embodies the norm expressed in the terms “equality before the law”. It is an aspect of the rule of law.

For matters which were equal or less than $100,000, 27% of offenders received a sentence of full time imprisonment whereas 40% received a s9 Good behaviour Bond.

For matters which were over $100,000, 100% offenders received some form of a custodial sentence. In particular 50% of offenders were sentenced to fulltime imprisonment, 25% were sentenced to an Intensive corrections order and 25% sentenced to a suspended Sentence.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for a Stealing a Motor Vehicle or Vessel charge.

• • Prison sentence
  • Home Detention
  • Intensive correction order (previously periodic detention)
  • Suspended sentence
  • Community service order (CSO)
  • Good behaviour bond
  • Fine
  • Section 10

However, from the 24 September 2018 new penalty’s will be replacing the above. They are as follows:

• • Full time Imprisonment
  • New ICO (ICO) with a home detention condition available
  • New Community Correction Order (CCO)
  • Fine
  • New Conditional release Order (CRO)

For more information, please visit our dedicated page on Penalties.

Our Client was charged with dealing with proceeds of crime after the dishonestly was caught transferring money that had been obtained fraudulently from a bank account. He pleaded guilty to the charge. The defence applied to have the sentence dealt with by way of a good behaviour bond. Our submissions were successful, and our client received a 12-month bond.