Sentencing

Giant trees, a $450,000 penalty and restorative justice: Forestry Corporation sentenced

Forestry Corporation of NSW has been ordered to pay $450,000 after pleading guilty to cutting down six giant trees and three hollow-bearing trees that were required to be protected in Wild Cattle Creek State Forest.

We look at how the Court weighed environmental harm, cultural harm to the local First Nations community and a restorative justice process in sentencing.

Gold mine fined $350,000 for dust emissions, and told to post about it on social media

The operator of the Cadia gold mine has been fined $350,000 for dust emissions above prescribed limits. It has also been ordered to fund air quality monitoring and to post about its offences on Facebook and X.

We look at the sentencing factors and the growing use of publication orders.

Environmental Offences - Court makes orders under s 10(1)(a) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999

On 29 September 2023 the Land and Environment Court handed down its decision in Natural Resources Access Regulator v Kimber; Natural Resources Access Regulator v Kimber [2023] NSWLEC 101.

In this case the Court considered what sentences ought to be imposed upon two individuals who each pleaded guilty to offences under section 60B of the Water Management Act 2000 (WM Act).

For one of the first times ever in a case involving offences under the WM Act, the Court ordered that the charges against each defendant be dismissed under section 10(1)(a) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (CSP Act) without proceeding to conviction.