Post by admin on Jul 28, 2011 20:21:06 GMT 10
A Victorian magistrate who sentenced an intellectually disabled man to jail for traffic and public transport fines should have checked to see whether he had a disability, a court has heard.
Zakaria Taha, 25, was sentenced to 80 days' jail in the Broadmeadows Magistrates Court in 2009 for 30 unpaid fines and costs of more than $11,000 which he incurred from 2006 to 2008.
Victorian Legal Aid is seeking a judicial review of his sentence by the Supreme Court in a bid to have his case reheard.
In the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday, Victorian Legal Aid senior public defender Saul Holt said a psychologist's assessment of Taha, who is illiterate and has a limited understanding of English, found he had significant intellectual disability.
He has an IQ of 61, meaning 99.7 per cent of people in the community would do better than him in an IQ test.
Twenty-two of Taha's fines were for failing to have a ticket on public transport, five were for failing to provide his details to authorities, two for driving without a licence and one for not wearing a helmet.
At the time he was sentenced, neither his duty lawyer, assigned to him on the day, nor the magistrate, were aware of Taha's intellectual disability.
Had the magistrate been aware of the disability, he could have waived the fines.
Victorian Legal Aid was unable to appeal the decision because legislation did not allow it.
Mr Holt told Justice Karin Emerton that the magistrate could have sought access to a justice plan that indicated that Taha had an intellectual disability, but he had failed to ask for such a record.
"The state was aware of Mr Taha's disability," said Mr Holt.
"The magistrate could have applied for access to that material if he had chosen to.
"Had it been before the magistrate, it would have been material that he was bound to take into account."
He said the fact that Taha had been brought before the court with such a large number of fines over a long period of time should have raised questions as to how this had happened.
Mr Holt said it was a problem that people with intellectual disabilities were responsible for disclosing their disability.
Taha's sentence has been stayed while VLA pursues his case.
Zakaria Taha, 25, was sentenced to 80 days' jail in the Broadmeadows Magistrates Court in 2009 for 30 unpaid fines and costs of more than $11,000 which he incurred from 2006 to 2008.
Victorian Legal Aid is seeking a judicial review of his sentence by the Supreme Court in a bid to have his case reheard.
In the Victorian Supreme Court on Thursday, Victorian Legal Aid senior public defender Saul Holt said a psychologist's assessment of Taha, who is illiterate and has a limited understanding of English, found he had significant intellectual disability.
He has an IQ of 61, meaning 99.7 per cent of people in the community would do better than him in an IQ test.
Twenty-two of Taha's fines were for failing to have a ticket on public transport, five were for failing to provide his details to authorities, two for driving without a licence and one for not wearing a helmet.
At the time he was sentenced, neither his duty lawyer, assigned to him on the day, nor the magistrate, were aware of Taha's intellectual disability.
Had the magistrate been aware of the disability, he could have waived the fines.
Victorian Legal Aid was unable to appeal the decision because legislation did not allow it.
Mr Holt told Justice Karin Emerton that the magistrate could have sought access to a justice plan that indicated that Taha had an intellectual disability, but he had failed to ask for such a record.
"The state was aware of Mr Taha's disability," said Mr Holt.
"The magistrate could have applied for access to that material if he had chosen to.
"Had it been before the magistrate, it would have been material that he was bound to take into account."
He said the fact that Taha had been brought before the court with such a large number of fines over a long period of time should have raised questions as to how this had happened.
Mr Holt said it was a problem that people with intellectual disabilities were responsible for disclosing their disability.
Taha's sentence has been stayed while VLA pursues his case.