Contravene Bail Conduct Conditions – Bail Application

This is a case of bail application wherein the accused had been remanded for 42 days. He is 20 years old with no prior convictions.

What is alleged to have occured?
Previously, the accused had two bail applications listed during which times he had not been brought out to court. The client was in a show cause position as he was on bail when the new offending took place, paving the way to a charge of Contravene Bail Conduct Conditions. The police were also alleging unacceptable risk.

Our client was to appear via videolink for a bail application but the videolink did not work.

What happened at court?
We submitted that the application be heard despite our client’s absence and the Magistrate accepted this submission.

We acted on the client’s behalf at the Sunshine Magistrates’ Court. The charges involved were:

• Recklessly Cause Injury
• Unlawful Assault
• Theft
• Commit Indictable Offence Whilst on Bail
• Contravene Bail Conduct Conditions
• Affray

The prosecution case was very weak (with no evidence connecting our client to the offences which he was on remand for). It was our client’s first time in custody and he had already spent 42 days on remand while waiting for a bail application. The magistrate conceded that he could conduct the bail application in the absence of the accused, particularly given the recent issues at Sunshine court with up to 11 people not being brought out on particular days.

We cross examined the (nominal) informant to clearly show the weakness of the police case. Submissions were made to the Magistrate highlighting that our client’s continued detention in custody was not justified given the weakness of the case; and our client’s lack of prior convictions, stable address, and support of court services.

What was the result?
Bail was ultimately granted with some fairly strict conditions.

This was a good outcome especially given the fact that one of the offences is Contravene Bail Conduct Conditions.