Police pursuit

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.

For offenders of Police Pursuit the maximum penalties are as follows:

(a) in the case of a first offence–imprisonment for 3 years, or

(b) in the case of an offence on a second or subsequent occasion–imprisonment for 5 years.

Please note that the penalties mentioned are reserved for the worse case offending.

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 Police Pursuit and are experts at these hearings.

Some of the possible defences available for those charged with Police Pursuit 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 police pursuit offenders 51% of first offenders received a full-time prison sentence whereas 88% of subsequent offenders received a full-time prison sentence.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for a supply prohibited drug 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 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)

Our client was involved in a police pursuit. We represented our client where we argued that his case should be dealt with by way of the relevant mental health provisions. Our client’s case was that he was off his prescribed medication for his chronic Schizophrenia condition and had an attack of paranoia and when asked to stop by police he for medical reasons fled. A psychological report and psychiatric report supported this argument. The Local Court Magistrate agreed with the defence’s submissions and dismissed the charges under the relevant mental health provisions.