Predatory Driving

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.

For offenders of Predatory Driving the maximum penalty if heard in the Local Court is 2 years. If the matter is heard in the District Court the maximum penalty is imprisonment for 5 years.

Please note that the penalties mentioned are reserved for the worse case offending.

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 thousands of people charged with Predatory Driving and are experts at these hearings.

Some of the possible defences available for those charged with Predatory Driving can include;

• 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”;
• If your actions were necessary to prevent a greater harm from occurring, you may have the defence of “Necessity”; Or
• If you were defending yourself or another OR yours or another’s property you may have a Defence of  Self-Defence.

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 Predatory Driving 48% of offenders received full time imprisonment whereas 22% received a suspended sentence.

In NSW, a court can impose any of the following penalties for a Predatory Driving 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 was charged with a predatory driving offence. He did not have a good traffic record but needed to obtain his licence to commence an employment that he was waiting to undertake. Our client was represented by our experienced Traffic Lawyers Sydney who advised the client to attend the Traffic Offenders Programme so that submissions could be made that, as a young driver, he would now be better educated when returning to the roads. We rightly advised the client that escaping the charge without a conviction and without being disqualified was the least likely result. The client successfully completed the Traffic Offenders Programme and some material was tendered to the Court with respect to the client’s subjective circumstances. Strong submissions were made on the client’s behalf and His Honour dismissed the charge pursuant to section 10 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) without recording a conviction.