Aguerre -v- Director General, Department of Fair Trading [1999] NSWADT 27

CITATION: Aguerre -v- Director General, Department of Fair Trading [1999] NSWADT 27

DIVISION: General

APPLICANT: Danilo Aguerre

RESPONDENT: Director-General, Department of Fair Trading

FILE NUMBER: 993013

HEARING DATES: 04/12/1999

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED: 04/12/1999

DATE OF DECISION: 12 April 1999

K P O'Connor DCJ - President BEFORE:

PRIMARY LEGISLATION: Pawnbrokers & Secondhand Dealers Act 1996

APPLICATION: Review of decision to refuse to grant secondhand dealers licence -

MATTER FOR DECISION: Principal matter

Applicant: In person REPRESENTATION: Respondent: T Grey, solicitor

ORDERS: 1. The decision of the Director-General is set aside. 2. The application for the licence is granted.

1 The applicant in this matter Mr Aguerre seeks a review of the decision of the Director-General of the Department of Fair Trading. The Tribunal's jurisdiction is conferred by s 39 of the Pawnbrokers & Secondhand Dealers Act 1996 ('the Act'). Under the legislation relating to applications for secondhand dealers licences the administrator, the Director-General, is obliged to refuse a licence if an applicant has been convicted within New South Wales or elsewhere of an offence involving dishonesty that was recorded within the last ten years. (See ss 8(1)(d) and 8(3) of the Act.)

2 In the present case Mr Aguerre was convicted of the offence of stealing at Kogarah Local Court on 17 July 1990 and fined $500. In appealing to this Tribunal he seeks to have the benefit of the discretion that is available to be exercised by the Tribunal, one that is not open to the exercised by the administrator. That discretion appears in section 8(4) of the Pawnbrokers & Secondhand Dealers Act and is expressed as follows: