All Charges Withdrawn Following High-Speed Police Chase
Case Summary
Our client was a passenger in a vehicle that was pursued by police after the police airwing observed two men wearing balaclavas inside the car. When a police vehicle attempted to intercept the car, it drove away at speeds of up to 160 km/h before losing control and crashing.
Police arrested both occupants and searched the vehicle. Our client was subsequently charged with trafficking cocaine, possessing cannabis and possessing a controlled weapon.
The client was a young person with a prior criminal history, including a previous breach of a Community Correction Order. The charges carried the risk of a conviction for serious offending and imprisonment.
The Circumstances Surrounding the Matter
Police located drugs throughout the vehicle, including a traffickable quantity of cocaine, cannabis, a hunting knife, zip-lock bags and scales. Some of the substances were found in the middle console and footwells, including the passenger-side footwell.
A quantity of cocaine exceeding 5 grams was found in the passenger footwell, near where our client had been sitting. The vehicle had been driven by the co-accused.
The prosecution maintained for several months that our client was complicit in the offending. Despite the defence position, the prosecution initially refused to withdraw the charges.
Our Approach
Luke Metherell carefully assessed the evidence and formed the view that the prosecution could not establish the charges against our client.
Although the circumstances involved a high-speed police pursuit, two occupants wearing balaclavas and a vehicle containing drugs and a weapon, the defence focused on what the evidence could actually establish about our client’s involvement.
Our client was the passenger, and the vehicle was driven by the co-accused. Our client had not made admissions, and there was no forensic evidence linking them to the drugs or weapon. Beyond our client’s presence in the vehicle and the proximity of some of the items, the evidence did not establish that the substances or weapon were within our client’s control, or that our client intended to exercise control over them.
The defence robustly challenged the prosecution’s position and maintained that the evidence did not support the charges. Pleading guilty was not treated as the default response; the evidence was scrutinised and the matter was contested.
Result
The prosecution ultimately accepted that there was no reasonable prospect of conviction and agreed to withdraw all charges.
The charges were formally withdrawn in court, bringing the matter to an end without the client having to plead guilty to the allegations.
Why Early and Thorough Defence Assessment Matters
This matter demonstrates the importance of examining the evidence behind serious allegations, rather than allowing the surrounding circumstances to determine the defence approach.
The police brief included photographs and details of a high-speed pursuit and a crashed vehicle containing drugs and a weapon. However, the central question remained whether the evidence established our client’s individual involvement in the alleged offending.
Through persistent engagement with the prosecution and careful scrutiny of the evidence, the defence was able to maintain that the charges should not proceed. The eventual withdrawal of all charges allowed our client to move forward without a conviction arising from these allegations.
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