R v Ahmad [2001] NSWDRGC 7

Drug Court of New South Wales

CITATION : R v Ahmad [2001] NSWDRGC 7 Regina PARTIES : -v- AHMAD, Khodar FILE NUMBER(S) : 0109 of 2001 CORAM: His Honour Judge Neil Milson CATCHWORDS: :- Drug Court Act 1998 (NSW) - Eligible person - "charged with an offence involving violent conduct" - whether s5(2)(b) applies to offences not referred to the Court LEGISLATION CITED: Bull v Attorney General (NSW) (1913) 17 CLR 356; R v Ranse [1999] NSWDRGC 2; CASES CITED: R v Sloane [1999] NSWDRGC 3; Chandler v DPP [2001] NSWCA 125; (2000) 113 A Crim R 196; R v Brown [2001] NSWDRGC 6 DATES OF HEARING: 09/07/2001 DATE OF JUDGMENT: 9 July 2001

Regina - D. Muddle, Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) LEGAL REPRESENTATIVES: Offender - S. Healy, Legal Aid Commission (NSW)

JUDGMENT:

Background

1. The applicant before the Court seeks entry to the Drug Court. There are three charges before the Drug Court, each relating to offences on 23 April of this year when he was apprehended and charged with breaking, entering and stealing, possession of housebreaking implements and goods in custody.

2. I am informed that on 19 March he had been charged with an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm under s59 of the Crimes Act 1900. He has apparently been convicted in his absence after having failed to appear at the Local Court on 15 May, and is awaiting sentence or other action in respect of that offence. There is an argument that the existence of that charge renders him ineligible to enter a Drug Court program.