Erle Cramer: Real estate agent will his learn fate after falling unconscious before crashing and killing partner

The fate of a Sydney real estate agent who fell unconscious behind the wheel of a car before crashing and killing his partner will be decided early next year.

Erle Cramer appeared at Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday.

The fate of a “successful” Sydney real estate agent who killed his partner in a horror crash after falling unconscious behind the wheel will be decided early next year.

Erle Cramer was set to be sentenced on Wednesday after the Crown and his former counsel signed a set of agreed facts in January after pleading guilty to dangerous driving occasioning death.

But Crown prosecutor Mark Hay made an unexpected bid for a disputed facts hearing after submitting to Judge Warwick Hunt he would not be able to sentence the 66-year-old on the basis the fatal crash in 2021 was caused by either microsleep or a seizure.

“He was instructed by a doctor not to drive, he had an accident where he was discussing with his family the lesson learned about not driving, and the moral culpability attached to that is higher,” Mr Hay told the judge.

“If it was a microsleep with little to no warning, it may lead the court to a different view about a moral culpability.”

Erle Cramer will be sentenced at Downing Centre District Court next year.

Cramer’s counsel Ragni Mathur opposed the application, reinforcing the facts had been agreed and signed – following negotiations between a different Crown and counsel – months earlier.

“The case is, it’s an unconscious act, the unconscious act is the cause of the collision,” Ms Mathur told the court.

“It could not be determined whether the cause is a microsleep or a seizure – there’s no dispute he suffered from epilepsy at the time of the collision.”

The matter was ultimately resolved after the agreed facts were amended.

In giving his “preliminary” thoughts to both parties, Judge Hunt said there were matters which “cut both ways in terms of moral culpability”.

“Whatever caused the accident that caused the deceased’s death … [Cramer] knew that he was fatigued … [he] knew he had not been seizure free for six months,” he said.

From the outset, Mr Hay said the Crown didn’t argue against Cramer’s mental health impairments, some including obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), complex partial epilepsy and major depressive disorder.

During Cramer’s cross-examination, he revealed he was at his mother’s home for “probably five hours” before the offence was committed.

Cramer told the court it was always the intention for him to drive home, saying his partner Linda didn’t like driving at night.

However, he agreed it could’ve been avoided by leaving earlier.

Mr Hay and Cramer went back and forth discussing the 66-year-old’s OCD and cleanliness concerns.

While admitting public transport was an alternative, Cramer said his disorder is “so great, that sort of option is not considered”.

Mr Hay questioned Cramer about a collision he had in December 2019 where he subsequently sent a message to his friends with words to the effect of “it could have been so much worse, even fatal … big lesson for me”.

He asked if after that point Cramer was aware that driving with his epilepsy condition posed a potential fatal risk to others and he agreed.

The court later heard the 66-year-old would struggle in a jail setting due to his need to decontaminate.

His psychiatrist told the court during a visit to Cramer’s apartment, he found “very serious clutter” due to his OCD, describing it as “confronting”.

Having previously worked for justice health, Dr Pulley affirmed Cramer would struggle in jail as the conditions were out of his control.

The matter will return to the same court on February 2.