DPP v Bolder [2009] NSWLC 25

Local Court of New South Wales

CITATION: DPP v Bolder [2009] NSWLC 25

JURISDICTION: Criminal

PARTIES: Director of Public Prosecutions Dean Troy Bolder

FILE NUMBER:

PLACE OF HEARING: Downing Centre Local Court

DATE OF DECISION: 08/11/2009

MAGISTRATE: Chief Magistrate G L Henson

CATCHWORDS: Reckless Wounding

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes Act 1900 – section 35(4)

CASES CITED: R –v- Chisari [2006] NSWCCA 19 R –v- Doan (2000) 50 NSWLR 115

TEXTS CITED:

REPRESENTATION:

ORDERS:

The Offence

1. The offender is charged with Reckless Wounding. The offence is contrary to the provisions of Section 35(4) of the Crimes Act 1900. The maximum penalty for such an offence is 7 years imprisonment. It is an offence to which Table 1 of the Criminal Procedure Act 1986 applies. Where the offence is dealt with before the Local Court of New South Wales the maximum jurisdictional penalty is 2 years imprisonment. The Facts related to the offence

2. An agreed statement of facts is appended to the Court file. For the purpose of these remarks they may be reduced to a more succinct form.

3. On 12th May 2008 the offender was carrying out his work as a tow truck driver. For reasons that are not relevant to these proceedings he had cause to reverse his tow truck into a driveway. This appears to have caused some momentary inconvenience to other motorists who had to stop whilst the offender undertook his manoeuvre. Save for the transient and minor inconvenience the driving activity of the offender was neither here nor there within the ordinary vicissitudes of everyday life. The victim was one of those persons who felt the offender had inconvenienced them. In a demonstration of impatience familiar to those who use our roads he demonstrated his resentment by raising the middle finger of one of his hands in a gesture that again, is altogether too familiar and reflective of the assumed prerogative of the self appointed arbiters of what is or is not acceptable in life.