R v O’Hara [2021] NSWDC 157

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v O'Hara [2021] NSWDC 157 Hearing dates: 08 March 2021 Date of orders: 10 March 2021 Decision date: 10 March 2021 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Neilson DCJ Decision: Leave granted to Crown to file proposed 4 indictments. Applicant directed to file written pleas to each indictment. Catchwords: CRIME – PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Application for stay of proceedings – A charged initially with 617 counts on one indictment – Crown later presented 5 indictments containing in total 617 counts – A seeks stay until Crown presents indictment that is not oppressive or vexatious – Crown proposes to present 4 indictments containing 206 counts – Leave granted to Crown to present 4 indictments. Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 Criminal Procedure Act 1986 Cases Cited: R v Smart [1983] 1 VR 265 Category: Procedural rulings Parties: Applicant – Ryan O'Hara Crown – Regina Representation: Applicant – M. Rumore Crown – S. Lind (Crown Prosecutor) File Number(s): 2018/00343446, 2018/00363508, 2019/00014379, 2019/00053845, 2019/00039066, 2019/00234103, 2019/00304481, 2019/00341508, 2020/00084377 Publication restriction: Nil.

Headnote Application for stay of proceedings. Applicant charged initially with 617 counts on one indictment. Later, Crown presented 5 indictments but they still contained 617 counts. Applicant seeks stay until Crown presents an indictment that is not oppressive or vexatious. Crown now proposes to present 4 indictments containing 206 counts as follows: Indictment Counts 1 51 2 62 3 54 4 39 The Crown alleges Applicant made 104 fraudulent applications for motor vehicle finance. Many were successful, a lesser number were not. If application was successful, the next count concerned dealing with the proceeds of crime. Modus operandi of Applicant as alleged by Crown was straightforward and easily capable of being understood by a jury. A number of counts in some of the proposed indictments contained related criminal e.g. false applications for bank accounts. Final 3 counts in proposed first indictment relate to alleged violence by Applicant against Police OIC. Relied upon by the Crown as consciousness of guilt, seeking to avoid apprehension, followed by 7 months "on the run". If tried separately, Crown would still be able to call evidence to explain why OIC was seeking to arrest Applicant, i.e. a lawful arrest, and also evidence as to Applicant's motive, so, despite a request for severance, those counts should be tried with the others. Leave granted to Crown to file proposed 4 indictments. Applicant directed to file written pleas to each indictment.