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Whilst punishment by ‘doing time’ may feel like the only right way to deter criminal behaviour, an approach that incorporates both punishments, rehabilitation and reintegration can be better for offenders and the community over the long term.
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In July 2021, Zhai & Associates finalised a 2-year long case in which our client was alleged to have stolen $800,000 of cash over a 1-year period working as a technician servicing Transport NSW Opal machines. Through extensive negotiations and painstaking analysis of thousands of lines of software data, we were able to reduce this amount to $300,000.
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The client was a man in his late 50’s with no prior criminal history who had demonstrated remorse by paying the entire amount back and whose mental health had suffered significantly since his initial arrest.
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Normally in theft cases, sentences should be set in a way that both punishes offenders and send a message to others, which usually means full-time imprisonment a.k.a. serving ‘time’ in a jail cell. However, barrister Peter Lange successfully argued both the client and the community would benefit from him serving a jail sentence in the community by way of ‘Intensive Corrections Order’ (ICO).
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So instead of serving time in a jail cell, the man was ordered to serve his jail time in the community by way of an Intensive Corrections Order for a period of 2 years and 8 months with 250 hours of community service and conditions to be of good behaviour and continue psychological counselling.
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If you are in a similar situation or know someone who is, enquire today at raymond@zhai.com.au or Contact Us to Book a Free Consultation and see if we can achieve this result for you too.