Court to rule on whether non-Australians can ‘cheat the system’ after Filipino man punches bloke outside an NT pub

A FILIPINO national’s fight to stay in Australia after punching a man in the face at a pub in has landed before the full bench of the Northern Territory’s highest court

A Filipino national’s fight to stay in Australia after punching a man in the face at a pub in has landed before the full bench of the Northern Territory’s highest court

A FILIPINO national’s fight to stay in Australia after punching a man in the face at a pub in Alice Springs has landed before the full bench of the Territory’s highest court.

Yves Calica pleaded guilty in the Supreme Court to causing serious harm to the man he hit outside Bojangles Saloon in June last year, shortly before he was due to take Australian citizenship.

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Calica’s lawyers are now seeking to overturn a precedent that says his imminent deportation if he’s sentenced to 12 months or more in prison and spends the mandatory minimum of three months in jail is not relevant in his sentencing.

That question has now been referred to the full bench of the Supreme Court, which heard submission on the issue last week.

During the hearing Justice Judith Kelly asked counsel whether a ruling in favour of Calica would create a Catch-22 scenario in which he would be entitled to a sentencing discount based on a situation that might not eventuate.

“If those considerations then apply in a threshold situation to bring it down to 11 months and then those consequences will not occur and you can’t take it into account and therefore, you’ll forget about the 12 months and therefore the consequences will occur and you can take it into account, are you stuck in an everlasting cycle there?” she said.

But Calica’s lawyer, Ian Read SC, said while taking the impending deportation into account could create a “feeling” that Calica had “cheated the system” that didn’t preclude the court from using the information in its deliberations.

“That is no different than in many sentencing circumstances – the court has to deal and make findings on the material before it, it’s not a question of certainty, ever,” he said.

Crown prosecutor Glen Dooley said if the court ruled the possibility of deportation could be taken into account in sentencing it could mean non-citizens would be given special treatment over Australians.

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“It could be that the decision would mean that non-citizens would have a particularly sharp arrow in their quiver when it comes to the issue of whether they would (avoid) mandatory sentencing,” he said.

The court reserved its decision which will be delivered at a date to be fixed.