HER MAJESTY'S ATTORNEY GENERAL IN AND FOR THE STATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES v MOOR and ANOR [1994] NSWCA 131

HER MAJESTY'S ATTORNEY GENERAL IN AND FOR THE STATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES v MOOR

SUPREME COURT OF NEW SOUTH WALES COURT OF APPEAL

MAHONEY, MEAGHER and POWELL JJA 28 February 1994, 28 February 1994 [1994] NSWCA 131

CONTEMPT UNDER UNAUTHORISED DOCUMENTS ACT 1922 — DOCUMENTS IN THE FORM OF COURT SUMMONSES SENT TO PERSONS FOR SALES PROMOTION — PLEA OF GUILTY

CONTEMPT under Unauthorised Documents Act 1922 — Documents in the form of Court Summonses — Sent to persons to induce them to call a telephone number so that they would hear a sales promotion — Opponents believed no offence was involved — Trouble, cost and inconvenience to recipients and to court and police officers.

Plea of guilty of contempt — Declarations that contempt committed — No Convictions entered — Opponents ordered to pay the Attorney General's costs on a party and party basis.

Mahoney JA On 23 November 1992 or thereabouts the respondents, Simon Anthony Moor and Jeremy David Hutton, caused documents to be sent to a large number of people. It is conceded these documents constituted a contempt of court within the meaning of the Unauthorised Documents Act 1922.

The opponents were then brought to this Court by the Attorney General to deal with that contempt, or those contempts. They have, through their counsel, Mr Russell, pleaded guilty to the offences.

In view of the circumstances as disclosed by the numerous affidavits filed on behalf of the Attorney General, one would think they had little alternative but to plead guilty. However, they have and they are now before the court essentially, in a practical sense, for the determination by the court of the penalty to be imposed.

It is necessary to refer briefly to the facts. The documents which were sent out were, it is said, modelled on a form of document in use in courts in South Australia. It contained at its head the Coat of Arms of the State of New South Wales or something equivalent thereto. It then was headed "Magistrates Court - Complaint and Summons" with endorsement and form of pleading guilty in writing. It contained a reference to an Act of Parliament, presumably that in South Australia.