Natasha Youkhana v R [2013] NSWCCA 85

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Natasha Youkhana v R [2013] NSWCCA 85 Hearing dates: 15 March 2013 Decision date: 26 April 2013 Before: Hoeben CJ at CL - [1] Slattery J - [2] Bellew J - [3] Decision: 1.Leave to appeal granted. 2.Appeal dismissed. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW - EVIDENCE - where applicant pleaded guilty to dealing with proceeds of crime and related offences - where facts asserted by the Crown on sentence were disputed - where Crown sought to prove disputed facts by relying upon representations of an unavailable co-offender pursuant to s. 65(2)(b) and s. 65(2)(d) of the Evidence Act - where sentencing judge admitted the representations - whether sentencing judge erred in concluding that the representations were made in circumstances that made it unlikely that they were a fabrication, or that made it likely that they were reliable - whether representations should have been excluded - whether open to the sentencing judge to conclude that he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the disputed facts - no error in the decision of the sentencing judge to admit the representations - no error in the sentencing judge's conclusion that he was satisfied, o n the basis of the representations, of the disputed facts beyond reasonable doubt

SENTENCE - parity principles - whether applicant had a justifiable sense of grievance in light of sentence imposed upon a co-offender for a similar offence - where sentencing judge properly considered principles of totality - where the applicant charged with offences over and above those with which the co-offender had been charged - where the overall criminality of the applicant was substantially in excess of that of the co-offender - no error demonstrated - no justifiable sense of grievance made out - appeal dismissed Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Evidence Act 1995 Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988 New South Wales Crime Commission Act 1985 Cases Cited: Harris v R [2005] NSWCCA 432 Hopley v R [2008] NSWCCA 105 House v The King (1936) 55 CLR 499 R v Ambrosoli (2002) 55 NSWLR 603; [2002] NSWCCA 386 at 616 R v Blick (2000) 111 A Crim R 326; [2000] NSWCCA 61 R v Tanya Youkhana [2011] NSWDC 63 R v Natasha Youkhana [2011] NSWDC 204 Category: Principal judgment Parties: Natasha Youkhana - Applicant Regina - Respondent Representation: Mr W C Terracini SC and Mr M P Tanevski (Applicant) Mr J Pickering SC (Respondent) Bannisters Lawyers - (Applicant) S Kavanagh - Solicitor for Public Prosecutions (Respondent) File Number(s): 2007/16952 2007/17249 Publication restriction: Nil Decision under appeal Citation: [2011] NSWDC 204 Date of Decision: 2011-12-20 00:00:00 Before: His Honour Judge Haesler SC