The Court held that a costs certificate under the Costs in Criminal Cases Act 1967 (NSW) should issue where the Crown case depended entirely on a single circumstantial inference and an alternative rational inference was reasonably open from the proved primary facts, rendering the case fatally flawed from inception. The Court rejected the proposition that it will necessarily be reasonable to commence proceedings merely because the case is circumstantial or because there was a case to answer at the close of the Crown case; neither the existence of a prima facie case nor the circumstantial character of the evidence displaces the statutory test of whether it was reasonable to institute proceedings. The residual discretion under s 2(1)(a) was exercised in favour of the applicant, noting the flaw existed from the outset and the applicant had cooperated fully with the investigation.
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