Bill Doogue
This is a real case study by one of our lawyers. The person who is in charge of this area in the firm is Bill Doogue. Bill is a founding Director and Accredited Criminal Law Specialist at Doogue + George, recognised by Doyle's Guide as one of five Preeminent white collar crime lawyers in Australia (2026). He acts in major tax fraud, white collar crime, bribery, corruption, and transnational criminal matters.
View full profile →This is a case study on a passport seizure in a fraud investigation at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where the passport was returned to allow the client to travel overseas.
What is alleged to have occured?
The client had his passport seized by Police after he was alleged to have been involved in a large fraud. The Police obtained a warrant and came and seized a lot of material including his passport and computers. His father in-law in China was very ill and he needed to go to visit him in China.
What happened at court?
Bill Doogue represented the client at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court to get back the passport seized by Police.
The Police had not charged our client at the stage when we made an application for him to be given back his passport.
The Police obviously had concerns that he would not return once he was given back his passport. We provided a lot of material to show that his father-in-law was actually in a hospital and that our client had tickets each way, and that he had considerable assets still in Australia.
What was the result?
The Magistrate ruled that the passport should be returned to us and that our client should give it back to the Police when he returns from China.
DISCLAIMER: This is a real case study of an actual case from our files. Details pertaining to the client have been changed to protect their privacy. The sentence imposed and the charge have not been altered. These case studies are published to demonstrate real outcomes and give an indication of possible tariffs in Court. We do not guarantee a similar case on these charges will get the same result. Please note that we post results at our discretion, therefore while many case studies are average results, others are notable for their exceptional outcomes. PUBLISHED 10/03/2015
