Search by

Latest News

The 2021-22 CDPP Annual Report was tabled in Parliament on Friday 28 October 20

The CDPP recently received an overall satisfaction score of 86 per cent from its biennial 2022 Partner Agency Survey.

The CDPP's 2022-26 Corporate Plan is now available.

The Attorney-General of New South Wales today announced the appointment of Ms Sarah McNaughton SC as a judge of the Supreme Court of NSW. 

The CDPP’s Library and Research Services team has won the 2022 Legal Information Service of the Year award announced at the Australian Law Librarians’ Association (ALLA) conference in Hobart on Thursday 26 August.

On 7 July 2022 the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Honourable Mark Dreyfus QC MP, announced he had declined to proceed further in the prosecution of Mr Bernard Collaery for five offences relating to the alleged unlawful communication of ASIS information contrary to the Intelligence Services

On 11 February 2022, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Ms Sarah McNaughton SC announced her decision to decline to proceed further in the criminal prosecutions of Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Limited, Deutsche Bank AG and four senior banking executives for cartel offences

The CDPP 2020-21 Annual Report was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday 20 October 2021. 

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Sarah McNaughton SC, has been extended in the role for a further two years.

The CDPP has launched a new Partner Agency Portal, giving investigators from partner agencies easy and timely access to information.
The last 12 months has tested businesses, including the CDPP, to become more agile to effectively deliver services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) is an independent prosecution service established by Parliament under the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1983 (Cth) to prosecute alleged offences against Commonwealth law.

The Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is warning members of the community to beware of scammers claiming to be from the CDPP.
The CDPP’s Partner Agencies will soon have access to a refreshed, scalable and dynamic, secure website to support their investigative work.

This is a joint media release between the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

A 24-year-old Sydney man has been jailed for nine years and four months after he posed as a teen to exploit and extort explicit images from children online.

Note: This is a joint media release between the Australian Federal Police and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions

A serial paedophile who abused children in Australia and Southeast Asia has today been sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with a non-parole period of 28 years.

On 7 November 2019, Richard Ham (21) and Soo Lee (24) were sentenced in the District Court of New South Wales after pleading guilty to attempting to possess a commercial quantity of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), more commonly known as ‘ecstasy’.

Today, Perth woman Alesha Stopforth (30) was sentenced in the District Court of Western Australia to 3 years imprisonment, to be released after serving 16 months upon entering into a Recognisance Order in the amount of $10,000 and to be of good behaviour for a period of 20 months, after pleading

Suzanne Akkari (25) was today sentenced to 18 months imprisonment to be released forthwith on a recognisance of $500 and to be of good behaviour for 18 months, after pleading guilty to a charge of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring another in the arrangement of a marriage to obtain perman

Today*, Savas Avan (49) was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria to 3 years imprisonment, after pleading guilty to mailing packages containing asbestos to consulates and embassies in Melbourne and Canberra.

Today, Luke Borg (36) was sentenced in the County Court of Victoria after pleading guilty to a number of child sex offences.

A man from Sydney was today sentenced to a total term of imprisonment of 34 years, with a non-parole period of 29 years, for preparing and planning a terrorist attack, threatening to kill the NSW Commissioner of Corrective Services and for an attack on an inmate in custody.

Three Victorian men were today sentenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria for the offence of engaging in a terrorist act.  A jury had earlier found the men guilty of this crime by setting fire to a Shia mosque in suburban Melbourne, causing $1.5 million in damage.

The Victorian County Court has today sentenced Mohamed Osman Omar (36), to four years imprisonment, after he pleaded guilty to defrauding the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) of more than $370,000, and attempting to obtain a further amount of more than $85,000.

Former Aboriginal art centre boss jailed for ripping off artists

Year
2021-2022
Location
Queensland

Date of Judgment: 14 February 2022

Court: District Court of Queensland

Partner Agency: Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC)

Summary of charges:

Mr Brett Evans was charged with 35 offences contrary to section 265-35(3) of the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth) (CATSI Act), in that he used his position as an employee of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation dishonestly, with the intention of directly or indirectly gaining an advantage for himself.

Synopsis:

On 14 February 2022 in the Mount Isa District Court Mr Evans was sentenced to a total effective sentence of four years and six months imprisonment, with a non-parole period of twenty months.

Key points:

On 35 occasions between August 2011 and September 2014 Mr Evans used his position as the Manager and later the Chief Executive Officer of the Mornington Island Art Centre to obtain $425,378.20 to which he was not entitled.

The Mornington Island Art Centre is operated by the Mirndiyan Gununa Aboriginal Corporation and provides facilities and materials (such as paint and cavasses) to Aboriginal artists on Mornington Island to create artistic work. The Art Centre then assists the artists to sell their artwork and the sale proceeds are divided between the Art Centre and the artist.

During the period of the offending, Mr Evans misrepresented to a number of buyers and/or their agents that he was selling artwork on behalf of the Art Centre when in fact he was selling it for his own personal gain. He did this by dealing and communicating with them in his capacity as an employee of the Art Centre and providing invoices to them which contained his personal bank account details. Mr Evans dishonestly sold and kept the sale proceeds of 190 paintings created by various artists on Mornington Island, including the late Sally Gabori.

The offending was detected when a number of the invoices containing Mr Evans personal bank account details were discovered. A thorough investigation was conducted by ORIC and the extent of the offending was revealed.

Sentencing:

Mr Evans pleaded guilty to all 35 charges and was sentenced to a total effective sentence of four years and six months imprisonment with a single non-parole period of twenty months. Nine reparation orders totalling $421,378.20 were made in favour of the Mirndiyan Gununa Aboriginal Corporation and the artists, pursuant to s21B of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).

In sentencing, Judge Dearden said that while Mr Evans offending was not the most serious example of its kind, in his view the offending overall represented something approaching the most serious offending of its kind, in this category of offending.

Judge Dearden noted that the artists relied entirely on the honesty and competence of those who ran the Art Centre and Mr Evans offending represented a profoundly sad and deeply distressing breach of the obligation that he had in his role at the Mornington Island Art Centre to nurture, assist, protect and look after the artistic endeavours of the artists.

“Your conduct has had a profound financial, emotional and very personal effect on each of the artists concerned, or in the case of two of them who are now deceased, on their estates. Fundamentally, you have been a cheat, and you have been a cheat to a very large sum of money, and those whom you cheated – the organisation and the artists – have all been completely cheated of anything from the work that they have done” Judge Dearden said.

Relevant links:

ORIC media release – Former CEO charged with ripping off Aboriginal artist and art centre