Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions v The Country Care Group Pty Ltd (Ruling No 11) [2021] FCA 842

Federal Court of Australia

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions v The Country Care Group Pty Ltd (Ruling No 11) [2021] FCA 842 File number: VID 224 of 2019

Ruling of: BROMWICH J

Date of ruling: 8 May 2021

Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – competing directions to jury sought by prosecutor and accused pursuant to ss 14 and 15 of the Jury Directions Act 2015 (Vic) – argument by accused that direction sought by prosecutor reflected an impermissible change in the case against the accused as to the alleged "arrangement or understanding" – whether inclusion of words "between and amongst" in indictment created a different legal threshold for the prosecutor to meet than required for the purpose of cartel offence provisions within the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) – whether the words "between and amongst" in the indictment required the prosecutor to demonstrate that a multilateral agreement existed between the relevant parties for charges 1-3 of the indictment – whether any other statements by the prosecution in opening or correspondence demonstrated that their case had changed to allege multilateral agreements between the relevant parties – held: there was no change in the prosecutor's case from what was stated in the indictment – held: no other statement by the prosecutor demonstrated a change in case – held: direction given to jury reflected terms of the indictment

Legislation: Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) ss 44ZZRF(1), 79(1)(b) Criminal Code (Cth) ss 5.2, 5.6(1) Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth) s 68 Jury Directions Act 2015 (Vic) ss 11, 12, 14, 15 Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) Federal Court (Criminal Proceedings) Rules 2016 (Cth) rr 3.01, 3.13