Blum v Director of Public Prosecutions for Western Australia [No 2]

[2023] WASCA 123

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal
3. › Appeal against conviction
4. › Unreasonable verdict
5. › Whether verdict unsupported by evidence
6. › Circumstantial evidence
7. › Identity of driver
8. › Whether inference of guilt irresistible
1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal
3. › Appeal against conviction
4. › Use of lies as evidence
5. › Whether lies used as consciousness of guilt evidence or as admissions against interest
6. › [name withheld] v The Queen direction
1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal
3. › Appeal against conviction
4. › Procedural fairness
5. › No case to answer submission
6. › Magistrate's questioning of unrepresented accused
7. › Whether denial of procedural fairness
1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal
3. › Appeal against sentence
4. › Manifest excess
5. › Unlawfully doing act endangering life, health or safety
6. › Comparable cases
7. › Criminal Code (WA), s 304(1)(b)

Quick Take

A mandatory driver's licence disqualification under s 60B and s 106A of the Road Traffic Act 1974 (WA) is not a sentence for the purposes of s 11 of the Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), as its primary purpose is community protection rather than punishment, and s 106A(2) requires the order to be made 'despite any other written law'. Where an accused resiles from admissions made in a police interview, the magistrate may accept the admissions as truthful and reject the later account without engaging the [name withheld] v The Queen consciousness of guilt lie direction.