Ana Ascic v Philip John Bedworth

[2013] HCASL 200

ANA ASCIC

v

PHILIP JOHN BEDWORTH

[2013] HCASL 200
P43/2013

1. On 28 February 2012, the applicant was convicted in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia of one count of careless driving.  She was fined $300 and ordered to pay costs.  The Magistrate found that the applicant had collided with another vehicle after driving through a red traffic light.  The Magistrate made an adverse credibility finding against the applicant and rejected her contention that it was in fact the driver of the other vehicle who had driven through a red light.

2. On 7 December 2012, the Supreme Court of Western Australia (EM Heenan J) refused the applicant leave to appeal against her conviction.  His Honour did not consider that the grant of leave was warranted by new evidence, being an affidavit of a surveyor.  The calculations contained in the affidavit were based on estimates and assumptions and could not form any substitute for the eye-witness evidence that was before the Magistrate.

3. On 5 August 2013, the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Western Australia dismissed an application for leave to appeal that decision.  Buss JA, with whom Martin CJ and Mazza JA agreed, held that it was open to the Magistrate to be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt of the applicant's guilt.  There was no basis for disturbing the Magistrate's finding that the evidence of an independent eye-witness, which corroborated the prosecution's version of events, was credible and reliable.  Further, EM Heenan J had not erred in relation to the surveyor's evidence.  Buss JA also refused the applicant leave to adduce a folder of new documents in evidence because none of them materially advanced her case.

4. The application for special leave continues to agitate arguments that were raised and rejected below.  The applicant does not identify any error in the decision of the Court of Appeal, and there is no reason to doubt the correctness of that decision.  Special leave is refused.

5. Pursuant to r 41.10.5 we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application.

S.M. Kiefel
13 December 2013 P.A. Keane