Miles v Commissioner of Victims Rights [2017] NSWCATAD 188

Civil and Administrative Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Miles v Commissioner of Victims Rights [2017] NSWCATAD 188 Hearing dates: 3 March 2017 Date of orders: 16 June 2017 Decision date: 16 June 2017 Jurisdiction: Administrative and Equal Opportunity Division Before: M Riordan, Senior Member Decision: (1) Pursuant to Section 67 (1)(a) of the VRSA, I vary the order made by the Commissioner on 14 October 2016, as follows:

(a) The applicant is required to make restitution in the sum of $750, to be paid by equal instalments of $20 per month. Catchwords: Victims Rights and Support – administrative review - restitution order against person convicted of relevant offence – alleged financial hardship. Legislation Cited: Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 (No. 2) Victims Rights and Support Act 2013 Victims Support and Rehabilitation Act 1996 Cases Cited: Connor v R [2005] NSWCCA 431 [at 41] Category: Principal judgment Parties: John Peter Miles (Applicant) Commissioner of Victims Rights (Respondent) Representation: Solicitors: In Person (Applicant) S Sabesan (Respondent) File Number(s): 2016/00378522 Publication restriction: Section 64 (1) Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2013 – Restriction on publication of information that will identify any victims or evidence given and received in this Tribunal hearing or in relation to the proceedings which is likely to identify those persons

REASON FOR DECISION 1. Mr John Peter Miles ("the applicant") has made an application for administrative review of a restitution order made on internal review on 4 October 2016, by the Delegate of the Commissioner of Victims Rights. This required him to pay restitution of $3,250 by way of $20 monthly instalments, being part of the award for statutory compensation paid to the victim in respect of an act of violence committed by him. That order was made pursuant to Section 64 of the Victims Rights and Support Act 2013 ("the VRSA"). 2. Part 5 of the VRSA is concerned with the recovery of victim support payments from offenders. The object of that Part is set out in Section 57: The object of this Part is to enable financial support paid and recognition payments made under the Scheme to be recovered from persons found guilty of the crimes giving rise to the payments. 1. The statutory scheme gives the Commissioner of Victims Rights a discretion to make a provisional restitution order against a person convicted of a relevant offence, either after a recognition payment (or financial support) has been paid to a victim of that offence, or following approval of such a payment (see: Section 59(1)). 2. 'Relevant offence' is defined in Section 58 of the VRSA to mean: Relevant offence means the following: (a) An offence arising from substantially the same facts as those constituting an act of violence in respect of which an approval for the giving of victims support has been given, (b) Any other offence if an offence referred to in paragraph (a) was taken into account (under Division 3 of Part 3 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999) when sentence was passed on the offender for that other offence, (c) An offence involving one or more acts of a series of related acts (within the meaning of section 19 (4)) in respect of which victims support is given under this Act. 1. A provisional order cannot be made where civil proceedings by or on behalf of the State to recover damages are on foot, or if more than two (2) years have passed since, whatever was the later the date of (a) conviction, or, (b) the expiry of the time in which a claim for victims support could be made under Section 40(6). 2. In this case, there is no dispute that the relevant offence occurred on 23 February 2012, and that the applicant was convicted of the offence of "assault occasioning actual bodily harm" against his former de facto partner in the District Court of New South Wales in Newcastle on 7 February 2013, in respect to which he was placed on a Good Behaviour Bond in accordance with Section 9(1)(b) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 for a period of 12 months.