Case Study

Our client was charged with 20 theft charges with a total value of $30,769.16. Our client was young and had recently immigrated to Australia, and the alleged offending had occurred at her place of work. They had no prior criminal or traffic history in Australia or overseas. At the time of the offending, they were studying for a degree in healthcare, and as a result of the charges, our client was excluded from obtaining the necessary worker screenings and therefore was unable to continue their studies. We negotiated with the prosecution to consolidate the 20 charges of theft, into one charge of theft and were able to reduce the total value of the theft by $10,000. We advocated for our client to receive a Diversion, as our client had no criminal or traffic history, was incredibly remorseful for their offending and a criminal record would greatly impact their ability to pursue a career in healthcare. At first, the Magistrate was apprehensive to sentence our client to a Diversion Program, as the offending was in their opinion, far too serious, however we were given the opportunity to make submissions to the Magistrate to convince them otherwise. We were successful in convincing the Magistrate by way of submissions, and our client received Diversion.