Hindering an investigation

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.

Hindering an investigation can be punished with a prison sentence of up to 2 years (if heard in the Local Court) or up to 7 years (If heard in the District Court).

Please note these penalties are reserved for the worst kind of offending and are unlikely to be what you would receive.

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 hundreds of people charged with Hindering an Investigation and are experts at these hearings.

Some of the possible defences available for those charged with Hindering an Investigation can include;

• • that you did not intend to hinder an investigation, discovery of evidence or the apprehension of a person;
  • that you did not do the act that is alleged;
  • 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”; or
  • If your actions were necessary to prevent a greater harm from occurring, you may have the defence of “Necessity”.

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 Hindering an Investigation 12% of offenders received full time imprisonment whereas 42% received a s9 good behaviour bond.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for a Hindering an Investigation charge.

• • • Prison sentence
    • Home Detention
    • Intensive correction order (previously periodic detention)
    • Suspended sentence
    • Community service order (CSO)
    • Good behaviour bond
    • Fine; and or
    • Section 10

However, from the 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; and or
    • New Conditional release Order (CRO)

Our client’s partner was being arrested and our client protested and tried to pull him away. One of the police officers warned our client she was hindering police, but she did not cease trying to pull her partner away and attempted to physically pull her partner while he was being handcuffed. She was then arrested by police to which she continued to struggle. She was charged with hinder police investigation. During a plea negotiation, our client pleaded guilty to the hinder charge. We represented her in her sentencing hearing where we tendered psychiatric evidence that showed that there was no risk of her reoffending. We also tendered references and a letter of apology. As one of the best criminal defence lawyers Sydney has to offer the Magistrate took into consideration our submissions and the information we tendered and ultimately handed down a Section 10 sentence meaning the offence was not recorded on our clients criminal record .