PARRISH & GALLEJO (No.2)

In the matter of *Parrish & Gallejo (No.2)*, Judge Jarrett of the Family Court of Australia considered an application for contempt of court brought by the applicant against the respondent, Mr Gallejo. The dispute concerned Mr Gallejo's contravention of court orders made on 5 April 2013 and 18 October 2017, which related to financial matters, including mortgage payments, the withdrawal of sale proceeds, and the provision of financial statements.

The court was required to determine whether Mr Gallejo had contravened the specified orders and, if so, to consider the appropriate penalty for such contraventions, which were found to constitute a flagrant challenge to the authority of the court. The legal issues revolved around the application of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth), specifically concerning contempt of court and the powers of the court to punish such breaches.

Judge Jarrett found that Mr Gallejo had, on his own pleas of guilty, contravened multiple orders. These contraventions included unauthorised payment of mortgage funds, retention of sale proceeds, systematic withdrawal of funds from a mortgage account, failure to make monthly mortgage payments, failure to pay the remaining mortgage balance, and failure to provide financial statements for a superannuation fund. Applying s 112AP(4) of the *Family Law Act 1975*, the court sentenced Mr Gallejo to a term of imprisonment for twelve months, to be served concurrently, for the first two counts of contempt. For the third and fourth counts, he was sentenced to six months imprisonment, also to be served concurrently. The terms of imprisonment were ordered to be served concurrently. For the fifth count, Mr Gallejo was fined $1,000. A Warrant of Commitment was ordered to issue to give effect to the imprisonment.