There are a number of legal issues surrounding the arrest of Mr LEE by Constable YOUNG. These legal issues commence shortly after the intercept which is for a relatively minor traffic matter which first presents itself to the police.
At the point when when LEE attempts to leave neither he nor YEOH have committed an offence where there is a power of arrest by the attending officers. LEE is a passenger and has really little to do with YEOH and his manner of driving or the broken tail light of the vehicle. The offence of driving a vehicle and having a broken tail light is relatively trivial offence and should be dealt with by the attending police by either the issuing of a defect notice or Police …show more content…
Sergeant Oldham has not sufficiently orally briefed the JP when showing him the warrant application. The other issues are that the JP has possibly only read through the application and not asked sufficient detail regarding the application and ‘why’ and for ‘what’ the search is being conducted for. As emphasised in Crowley v Murphy (1981) 34 ALR 496 at 515, "It is for the Justice himself who must be satisfied ... he must ensure that a finding of reasonable grounds is supported by credible facts and circumstances". The facts of the warrant application should in the mind of the JP ‘induce a state of mind of suspicion and belief of the existence of facts which are sufficient to bring about that mental state’ (George v Rocket (1990) 170 CLR 104). The Sergeant is required to brief the JP in order to form a reasonable ground for suspecting there are drugs on the premises, and there is a are reasonable grounds for the JP to believe this. The warrant application has to have a sufficient grounding of …show more content…
It appears that he has just moved from interstate and may not have completed any application to be sworn in as a Justice of the Peace in Tasmania. Under the JA 1959, s.12 (2), the powers conferred on an extra-territorial justice by the JA 1959 are only exercisable within that the state, place or country outside of Tasmania that are mentioned in that JP’s instrument or appointment. If that JP has not applied and completed the relevant training to become a recognised justice in Tasmania, the search warrant is invalid. As outlined on the Department of Justice website (2017) – ‘ The appointment as a Justice of the Peace is not transferable from State to State. As such, a Justice of the Peace from another State cannot witness documents in Tasmania. Anyone wishing to become a Justice of the Peace in Tasmania must apply as above and undertake the standard selection and training process