R v Nguyen [2021] NSWDC 295

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Nguyen [2021] NSWDC 295 Hearing dates: 23 June 2021 – 1 July 2021 Date of orders: 2 July 2021 Decision date: 02 July 2021 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Mahony SC DCJ Decision: Verdict of Not Guilty Catchwords: Dealing with property, reasonable grounds to suspect the property is proceeds of crime, where property is less than 100,000 AUD in value. Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 Criminal Procedure Act 1986 Evidence Act 1995 (Cth) Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities) Act 2002 (NSW) Category: Principal judgment Parties: Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) Richard Nguyen (Offender) Representation: Counsel: J Gallagher (Offender)

Solicitors: A Pearson (Crown/Trial Advocate) File Number(s): 20/115900

Judgment 1. On 23 June 2021, the accused Richard Nguyen pleaded not guilty to one count on an Indictment as follows: "(1) On 18 April 2020, at Newtown in the State of New South Wales, did deal with property, being $40,000 in Australian currency, in circumstances where there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the property is the proceeds of crime." 1. The offence is pursuant to s 193C(2) of the Crimes Act 1900. The trial proceeded by judge alone pursuant to s 132 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 ("CPA"). 2. The elements of the offence pursuant to s 193C(2) of the Crimes Act are as follows: (1) The accused dealt (2) with property, and (3) there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the property is the proceeds of crime, and (4) at the time of the dealing, the value of the property was less than $100,000. 1. The following definitions appear in s 193A of the Crimes Act 1900. "deal with" includes – "(a) receive, possess, conceal or dispose of," … "proceeds of crime" means any property that is substantially derived or realised, directly or indirectly, by any person from the commission of a serious offence. "serious offence" means – (a) an offence (including a common law offence) against the laws of New South Wales, being an offence that may be prosecuted on indictment, or (a1) an offence against a law of the Commonwealth that may be prosecuted on indictment, or (b) the offence of supplying any restricted substance prescribed for the purposes of section 16 of the Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 1966 that arises under section 18A(1) of that Act, or (c) an offence committed outside New South Wales (including outside Australia) that would be an offence referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) if it had been committed in New South Wales. 1. Section 193C(3) provides relevantly as follows: (3) Without limiting subsection (1) (b) or (2) (b), there are reasonable grounds to suspect that property is proceeds of crime in each of the following circumstances— … (e) the value of the property involved in the dealing is, in the opinion of the trier of fact, grossly out of proportion to the defendant's income and expenditure over a reasonable period within which the dealing occurs 1. Section 193C(4) provides a statutory defence to the charge as follows: (4) It is a defence to a prosecution for an offence under this section if the defendant satisfies the court that the defendant had no reasonable grounds for suspecting that the property was substantially derived or realised, directly or indirectly, from an act or omission constituting an offence against a law in force in the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory or another country. 1. Pursuant to s 133(2) of the CPA, a judgment by a Judge in a Judge alone trial must include the principles of law applied by the Judge and the findings of fact upon which the Judge relies. I am also required, pursuant to s 133(3) to take into account any warning which would be given to a jury in dealing with this matter. I therefore set out a summary of the evidence adduced at trial.