Craig Austin loses appeal over public nuisance crime

A man has appealed a guilty verdict for a public nuisance offence by claiming someone at Bundaberg Council gave police his rates notice without a warrant.

A man says ‘people’s rates notices aren’t safe’ after he claimed in a Bundaberg Court that an unknown person at Bundaberg Council gave police his rates notice without a warrant.

A man who was found guilty of public nuisance has lost his attempt to appeal the verdict by alleging his rates information was handed out illegally.

Craig Austin appeared in the Bundaberg District Court on September 23 and September 29 to appeal the fine he was handed for his behaviour earlier in the year.

CCTV of the incident, which occurred on an unidentified date, played in court showed Mr Austin entering a Bundaberg Council building on Bourbong Street about 1.50pm when he approached the customer service counter.

In an audio recording Mr Austin could be heard asking to speak to someone in relation to his rates notice, which he claimed was given to a police officer without a warrant.

Austin claimed the rates notice was obtained by police in relation to a different matter involving him that was before the court.

When a Bundaberg Regional Council investigator approached the counter, Austin could be heard swearing at him saying, “you’re just as corrupt as that c--t upstairs”.

He was arrested at his home that evening and said “you beauty” when he was being arrested, the court was told.

On both hearing dates before the District Court, Austin continued to argue the reason for the public nuisance charge was he was unhappy about the alleged misconduct by someone at council, and requested the verdict be overturned on this defence.

Judge Allen told Mr Austin he took all information into consideration when reaching a conclusion in the appeal.

“The acting magistrate who conducted the trial appropriately explained the trial procedure to the self-represented defendant before hearing evidence from an investigating police officer and the complainant who was employed as a senior investigations officer with the BRC,” Mr Allen said.

“The complainant gave evidence of a history of dispute between the appellant and the council, particularly as regards to the complaint that the council had unlawfully provided a copy of the appellants rate notice to a police officer.

“There is no such available defence or excuse at law.

“The acting magistrate was quite right when he concluded that it is not a defence or excuse for a defendant to simply believe that they are entitled to behave in the way they did because of a belief that the council had earlier acted in an unlawful way to the defendant’s detriment.”

The appeal was dismissed.

Speaking after the matter Austin said he wanted to be arrested so he could make the court aware of his concerns about the use of his rates notice.

Austin said people should be “worried” about who had access to their rates notices.

“People’s rates notices aren’t safe,” he said.

Originally published as Craig Austin loses appeal over public nuisance crime