Pitchers v Police

The case of Pitchers v Police concerned an appeal against a sentence imposed by a special justice in South Australia. The appellant pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm without a licence and failure to keep a class B firearm secured. The special justice imposed a fine of $75.00 and ordered the forfeiture of the firearm, along with other costs and levies. The appellant challenged the forfeiture order and raised several other issues, including the special justice's jurisdiction, procedural fairness, the recording of convictions, the imposition of a single penalty for two offences, and the correctness of the court fees and victims of crime levy. The appeal was dismissed, with the court finding that while the special justice made several errors, the order of forfeiture was not set aside and administrative corrections would be made to the court fees and victims of crime levy.

The key legal issues in the appeal were whether the special justice had jurisdiction to hear the matter, whether the defendant was afforded procedural fairness, whether convictions should have been recorded, whether the special justice correctly imposed a single penalty for two offences, and whether the amounts imposed for court fees and the victims of crime levy were correct. The court held that the special justice's use of section 18A of the Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988 (SA) to impose a single penalty for both offences was appropriate, and that the errors in the calculation of court fees and the victims of crime levy would be administratively corrected. Despite the errors made by the special justice, the court decided not to alter the sentence imposed regarding the fine or the order for prosecution costs, due to the flawed nature of the proceedings. The court did, however, review the order of forfeiture and considered it appropriate not to set it aside in the circumstances of the case.