Environment Protection Authority v Allam (No 2) [2022] NSWLEC 7

Land and Environment Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Environment Protection Authority v Allam (No 2) [2022] NSWLEC 7 Hearing dates: 4, 5, 24 and 25 August, 27 and 28 September 2021 Date of orders: 10 May 2022 Decision date: 10 May 2022 Jurisdiction: Class 5 Before: Moore J Decision: See orders at [385] Catchwords: EVIDENCE - Prosecutor serves tendency notice on Defendant pursuant to s 97 of the Evidence Act 1995 - tendency said to be based on text messages obtained from Defendant's mobile phone - text messages arranged by Prosecutor into 16 message conversations - message conversations divided by Prosecutor into two groups - first group said by Prosecutor to evidence dishonesty by Defendant - second group said by Prosecutor to lead to inference of dishonesty by the Defendant - Defendant seeks rejection of tendency as being pleaded at too great a level of generality - tendency not pleaded at too great a level of generality - Defendant seeks exclusion of groups of message conversations as not demonstrating pleaded tendency - some (but not all) groups of message conversations proposed to be relied upon to demonstrate dishonesty ruled admissible for tendency purposes - all groups of message conversations said to infer dishonesty ruled inadmissible for tendency purposes Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Criminal Code Act 1924 (Tasmania) Copyright Act 1968 (Cwth) Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 Evidence Amendment (Tendency and Coincidence) Act 2020 Cases Cited: Adam v R (2014) 246 A Crim R 232; [2014] NSWCCA 265 Adam v The Queen (2001) 207 CLR 96; [2001] HCA 57 Anthony v Morton [2018] NSWSC 1884 Boughey v The Queen (1986) 161 CLR 10; [1986] HCA 29 El‑Haddad v R (2015) 88 NSWLR 93; [2015] NSWCCA 10 Environment Protection Authority v ACE Demolition & Excavation Pty Ltd [2022] NSWLEC 44 Environment Protection Authority v ACE Demolition & Excavation Pty Ltd; Allam [2022] NSWLEC 45 Environment Protection Authority v Allam [2021] NSWLEC 103 Galea v Farrugia [2013] NSWCA 164 Hughes The Queen (2017) CLR 338; [2017] HCA 20 Jacara Pty Ltd v Perpetual Trustees WA Ltd (2000) 106 FCR 51; [2000] FCA 1886 Papakosmas v The Queen (1999) 196 CLR 297; [1999] HCA 37 R v Bauer (2018) 266 CLR 56; [2018] HCA 40 R v Droudis (No. 13) [2016] NSWSC 1350 R v Pullen [2018] NSWCCA 264 R v Shamouil (2006) 66 NSWLR 228; [2006] NSWCCA 112 Raben Footwear Pty Ltd v Polygram Records Inc (1997) 75 FCR 88 RH v R [2014] NSWCCA 71 Richards v Macquarie Bank (No 2) (2012) 301 ALR 494; [2012] FCA 1403 Simpson v The Queen (1998) 194 CLR 228; [1998] HCA 46 TB v R [2019] NSWCCA 224 Category: Procedural rulings Parties: Environment Protection Authority (Prosecutor) Sami Allam (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: Mr D Buchanan SC/Ms F Graham, barrister (Prosecutor) Mr J Potts SC/Ms K Morris, barrister (Defendant)