Case: International tourists charged with serial burglaries
In early 2024, Victoria Police cracked down on a group of Irish tourists commiting burglarties around central Victoria. Apparently this trend had commenced by this particular group in 2019 as part of a roofing scam however due to the manner of offending, their crimes were only being detected in late 2023.
Our office acted for two individuals accused of burgling more than 20 homes. We acted quickly in summary case conferencing the matter with prosecution within 12 days of arrest and disclosure was not complied with prior to the contest mention which lead to a costs order being made against police for a wasted day in Court.
Accused of burgling more than 20 homes, police relied on circumstancial evidence. Despite Victoria Police utilising significant resources such as police surveillance unit including telephone intercept warrants and vehicle tracking devices, police were unable to catch them in the act or with anything that was able to be directly linked back to any of the offending. Police alleged that the Modus Operandi of this group is what is in common with the rest of the Irish burglary cases you’ll have seen over the news in mid 2024.
Defence continued to raise issues with respect to the evidence to support the charges and the matter resolved on only 2 burglary charges.
Matter proceeded by way of a sentence indication whereby one received 6 months and the other received 9 months. THe latter appealed to the County Court and received a reduction in sentence to match the co-accused’ who received 6 months imprisonment noting that he was to be deported immediately thereafter.
Charges/ Ch1 (s76 Crimes Act Burglary)x 22;
Result/ Withdrawal of all charges except for 2 burglary charges. Sentence= 6 months imprisonment.
We negotiated with Prosecutions over several months for a withdrawal of charges. The Prosecution initially refused to withdraw the charges because they believed they could rely on the circumstantial evidence of their Modus Operandi and the link to offending vehicles which were never caugh in the act and CCTV resolution was of very poor quality to make our credible identification evidence. We had costs reserved after a Contest Mention, as the Prosecution werent able to provide the requested disclosure material including statements and footage. The Prosecution later agreed to summary case conference with an open mind in attempt to resolve the matter.