R v Dang; R v Duong

The applicants, Dang and Duong, were facing charges related to drug trafficking and possession. The case involved the legality of a search conducted by police at a new address, Harvey Place in Calamvale, rather than the original address specified in the search warrant for Dang. The primary legal issues were whether the emergent search conducted by police at the new address was justified and whether the emergent search was necessary to prevent the immediate loss of evidence. The applicants argued that the police lacked the necessary grounds for an emergent search and that the search at the new address should be excluded as evidence.

The Court considered the circumstances leading up to the emergent search. The police had initially planned to execute search warrants simultaneously for nine targets, including Dang, at their respective addresses. However, Dang's car was found at a different address in Harvey Place, leading the police to believe they had been seen near this location by a person driving Dang’s car. This prompted the police to conduct an emergent search. Although there were discrepancies in the testimonies of the officers involved regarding the exact events leading up to the search, the Court found no evidence of any sinister motives behind these discrepancies. The Court noted that the officers proceeded with the emergent search without significant concern, and Detective Green later obtained a post-search approval order from the Magistrate, indicating that the emergent search was considered justified under the circumstances.

The Court ultimately concluded that the emergent search was justified and that there were grounds for it. The evidence obtained during the search was not excluded, and the applications to exclude the evidence were refused. The reasoning focused on the police's belief, based on intercepted communications and the presence of Dang’s car at the new location, that an emergent search was necessary to prevent the immediate loss of evidence. The Court found that the emergent search was conducted in good faith and within the legal framework provided by the post-search approval order.