Ali v R [2022] NSWCCA 199

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Ali v R [2022] NSWCCA 199 Hearing dates: 29 August 2022 Date of orders: 15 September 2022 Decision date: 15 September 2022 Before: Beech-Jones CJ at CL at [1] Bellew J at [2] Fagan J at [77] Decision: (1) The time for filing a Notice of Appeal is extended to 23 February 2022. (2) The appeal is dismissed. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – Appeal – Evidence – Expert evidence – Where the applicant was convicted of multiple counts of dealing in identification information with the intention of facilitating the dishonest obtaining of a financial advantage by deception – Where Crown case relied on circumstantial evidence including evidence of telephone intercepts – Where interpreter gave evidence of having translated conversations from Hindi into English – One of the parties to those conversations was described as a "male voice" – Crown case was that this was the voice of the applicant – Where interpreter gave evidence without objection that the "male voice" in each conversation was the same voice – Whether that evidence was admissible – Whether the jury were in the same position as interpreter to reach that conclusion – Whether the Crown was under an obligation to play each of the conversations in Hindi to the jury absent any request by trial counsel for the applicant to do so – Consideration of principles governing the Crown's decision to call witnesses in a criminal trial – Where the playing of the entirety of the calls would have been a waste of valuable Court time – Where applicant required an extension of time in which to bring the application for leave to appeal against his convictions – No merit in either ground of appeal – Extension of time granted – Appeal dismissed Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) Supreme Court (Criminal Appeal) Rules 2021 (NSW) Cases Cited: Butera v Director of Public Prosecutions (Vic) (1987) 164 CLR 180; [1987] HCA 58 Honeysett v The Queen (2014) 253 CLR 122; [2014] HCA 29 IW v R [2000] 2019 NSWCCA 311 Nasrallah v R; R v Nasrallah [2015] NSWCCA 188 R v Apostilides (1984) 154 CLR 563; [1984] HCA 38 R v Leung (1999) 47 NSWLR 405; [1999] NSWCCA 287 R v Menzies [1982] 1 NZLR 40 Smith v The Queen (2001) 206 CLR 650; [2001] HCA 50 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Mohammad Ali – Applicant Regina – Respondent Representation: Counsel: R Pontello SC and T Bicanic – Applicant M Kumar and B Allison – Respondent