The Supreme Court held that a magistrate's use of an accused's demeanour in a police interview video as the sole basis for rejecting sworn denials constituted a denial of procedural fairness and a miscarriage of justice, where the demeanour point was not raised by the prosecution and not put to the accused in cross-examination, in breach of Browne v Dunn. The Court further held that the magistrate's characterisation of the police question as 'simple' was an erroneous factual finding, as the question involved two distinct limbs (stolen or unlawfully obtained). Although the circumstantial evidence was found sufficient to support a conviction (ground 1 refused), the proviso could not be applied because the appellate court was unable to assess the accused's credibility without having seen and heard him give evidence, and the conviction was set aside with a retrial ordered.
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