Jamieson v The Queen; Brugmans v The Queen

The High Court of Australia heard applications for special leave to appeal from decisions of the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal. The applicants, Jamieson and Brugmans, sought to appeal against the Court of Criminal Appeal's rejection of their appeals from judgments of the District Court. In the District Court, applications to quash indictments and demurrers had been entered against both applicants.

The central legal issue before the High Court was whether a person could be charged with attempting to obtain property by false pretenses, where the alleged false representations were contained within a statement of claim filed in civil proceedings. A broader question also arose concerning the existence and scope of any immunity from prosecution for statements made in the course of criminal proceedings.

The applicants argued that the indictment, which alleged an attempt to obtain by false representation through the service of a statement of claim on the Government Insurance Office, was flawed. The alleged false representations concerned the circumstances of a car accident, specifically that the applicant was the driver and that the car had been driven off the road by an unknown vehicle. The Crown's case was that the attempt constituted the causing of the statement of claim to be served on the GIO. The Court of Criminal Appeal had found the present case to be indistinguishable from *Beydoun*, a previous decision concerning a charge of obtaining by deception under s 178B of the Crimes Act, where the particulars also referred to statements made in a statement of claim.