Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) v Borg

Judgment 1On 5 July 2012 the defendant, Corey Ryan Borg, appeared in the Local Court at Penrith in answer to a charge brought under s 40(1)(a) of the Road Transport (Safety and Traffic Management) Act 1999 ("the Safety and Traffic Management Act") (a charge shortly known as "street racing"). At the conclusion of the prosecution case, the magistrate held that the prosecution had failed to establish a prima facie case and dismissed the charge. 2Pursuant to s 56 of the Crimes (Appeal and Review) Act 2001 ("the Appeal and Review Act") the Director of Public Prosecutions (having, pursuant to s 9(1)(c) of the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1986, taken over the proceedings) appeals against that order. 3Section 40 of the Safety and Traffic Management Act is relevantly in the following terms: "(1) A person must not organise, promote or take part in: (a) any race between vehicles on a road or road related area ... (b) ... (c) ... (d) ... unless the written approval of the Commissioner of Police to the holding or making of the race, attempt or trial has been obtained." (italics added) 4The case the prosecution sought to make against the defendant was given in the statements and oral evidence of two police officers who were assigned to the Highway Patrol, Leading Senior Constable Michael Franich, and Constable Wade Weissel. The evidence of Leading Senior Constable Franich was to the following effect. At about 12.50am on 7 April 2012 he was the driver, and Constable Weissel the passenger, in an unmarked Highway Patrol vehicle on the University of Western Sydney roadway at Werrington in the west of Sydney. That road intersects with the Great Western Highway. Senior Constable Franich stopped his vehicle at the intersection because the traffic control lights in his direction were red. He observed a Nissan Pulsar travelling east in lane 2 on the Great Western Highway (which consists of two lanes in each direction). The Nissan was then travelling at a speed of about 60km/h. The applicable speed limit was 80km/h. Also on the Great Western Highway, travelling at a slightly higher speed in the same direction in lane 1, was a Ford Falcon sedan. The Nissan was driven by the defendant. The Ford Falcon was driven by Craig Otten. 5As the two vehicles passed the intersection, both "accelerated harshly". They continued to accelerate to a speed in excess of the 80km/h speed limit. They travelled side by side for a distance of 500m. 6When the traffic lights changed, Senior Constable Franich turned right onto the Great Western Highway and followed the vehicles. The Ford Falcon driven by Otten slowed and returned to a speed of about 80km/h. The Nissan driven by the defendant continued to accelerate. Senior Constable Franich activated the warning devices on his vehicle. At this point the vehicles of the defendant and Otten were well separated. Senior Constable Franich directed the defendant to pull over, which he did. There followed a conversation between them which it is unnecessary to recount. 7Senior Constable Franich estimated that Otten had driven at an average speed of 97.4km/h, the defendant at 110.76km/h. However, in oral evidence he agreed that these estimates were based on an incorrect premise concerning the distance that had been travelled, and could not be regarded as reliable. It appears that the parties proceeded on the basis that the speed attained by the defendant was about 97km/h. 8(The statement of Constable Weissel was essentially to similar effect to that of Senior Constable Franich (T 39/40).) 9After hearing evidence and submissions on behalf of the parties, the magistrate gave a ruling. In its entirety it was: "The prosecution case taken at its highest and I thank you for the definition of what a race means and I am also going to apply a common sense view of what a race means and what people including this Court would perceive when somebody is racing, that there appears to be from an observation of a race that the two parties are endeavouring to win and it is rare, so rare that in any race that would be going over half a kilometre where the two opposing teams or the two opponents would be racing at the same level which is what was observed by the police for 500 metres, that they were at the same level for that period of time. It is also not of assistance to the prosecution case that Constable Franich agreed with the proposition that - the question asked, 'Q. Is there anything in the report that you have the expertise to refute?' He said, 'No.' Now he has seen the report. To me it is quite a simple question. Did it look like a race to this magistrate when they are driving side by side for such a period of time? No, it did not. SO I FIND THAT THERE IS NO PRIMA FACIE CASE." 10The opening sentences in the second paragraph of this extract are a reference to an expert report that had been prepared for the defence, and shown to the magistrate, but which, perhaps by reason of her no prima facie case finding, never found its way into evidence. 11Earlier, during argument, the magistrate had said: "So there's no evidence that they're moving backwards and forwards if they're racing as one would expect in a race of any kind. Whether you're racing you know something on the river, the Nepean River, row boats, people go backwards and forwards over a short period of time. Runners, you see them on the television running backwards and forwards, you know overtaking each other incrementally but there's no evidence of that except that they're travelling side by side. In my view a race would mean that there would be some attempt to overtake even incrementally, a small amount, as you often see in races of people of equal strength, and as a matter of vehicles, cars of equal power, that there would be some difference, some slight difference but that's not in evidence. What's in evidence is that they're travelling exactly at the same rate, in fact it was your officer said 'at the same level'." 12The magistrate ordered costs against the prosecution, which she quantified at $12,000.