NSW Caselaw
New South Wales District Court
CITATION: DE SILVA v R [2010] NSWDC 95
HEARING DATE(S): 26 May 2010
JUDGMENT DATE: 26 May 2010
JURISDICTION: District Court Criminal
JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ
DECISION: The appeal is dismissed. The orders of the magistrate are confirmed.
CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Judgment - Severity Appeal - Social Security fraud - Whether conviction appropriate
LEGISLATION CITED: Commonwealth Criminal Code Property Stock and Business Agent's Act
PARTIES: The Crown (Cth) Heidi De Silva
FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2010/00021675
SOLICITORS: Ford Criminal Lawyers - Appellant Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) - Respondent
JUDGMENT
1 HIS HONOUR: I have before me an appeal by Ms Heidi De Silva against a sentence imposed in the Local Court upon her for five offences involving breaches of the Commonwealth Criminal Code in that she on five occasions obtained a financial advantage for herself from a Commonwealth entity to which she was not entitled.
2 These offences occurred some time ago. They concern a period of time when Ms De Silva was firstly obtaining Austudy payments and then obtaining Newstart payments. During that period she failed to tell Centrelink of income she was earning from a number of casual jobs. This led to her being overpaid a not insignificant amount, more than $7,000. The matter is only being dealt with some time after the offences were committed, because shortly after the offences were committed Ms De Silva went overseas for a number of years. Upon her return to Australia and after her son was born she applied for the baby bonus and at that stage she learnt that she was being prosecuted for these offences.
3 Ms De Silva is a woman of otherwise good character, apart from a speeding conviction which I will ignore. In particular she has committed no other offences of dishonesty. As well as that evidence of what she has not done there is also evidence of what she has done - doing a great deal of good work both here and in Indonesia helping others less fortunate than herself.
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