Hill v R [2017] NSWCCA 136

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Hill v R [2017] NSWCCA 136 Hearing dates: 31 May 2017 Date of orders: 21 June 2017 Decision date: 21 June 2017 Before: Hoeben CJ at CL at [1] Johnson J at [2] Bellew J at [3] Decision: 1. The appeal against conviction is dismissed.

2. Leave to appeal against sentence is refused. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – Appeal – Practice and Procedure – Amendment of indictment – Where appellant was charged with 7 counts of fraudulent misappropriation of money paid to him on particular terms – Where some counts in the indictment originally presented alleged that the money had been received by the appellant from a superannuation fund – Where trial judge allowed the Crown to amend those counts by substituting the name of an individual for the name of the superannuation fund – Whether trial judge erred in doing so – Whether the appellant was unfairly prejudiced by the amendment

CRIMINAL LAW – Appeal – Statutory Construction - Where appellant was charged with 7 counts of fraudulent misappropriation of money paid to him on particular terms – Where the counts in the indictment alleged in each case that the money the subject of the misappropriation had been received by the appellant on terms which required him to pay it towards "seed capital" in house and land packages in Queensland – Whether a charge pleaded in those terms disclosed an offence known to the law – Whether it was an element of the offence that the Crown prove that the money was received on terms requiring to be paid to a particular person

CRIMINAL LAW – Appeal – Where appellant was charged with 7 counts of fraudulent misappropriation of money paid to him on particular terms – Where the Crown relied upon evidence of individual investors in support of each count – Where the Crown also relied upon documentary evidence to support the various counts - Whether a so-called "Murray" direction was required in those circumstances