If you are arrested and charged, the police may give you bail from the watch-house. You will be released on a written undertaking to appear in court. The police can also impose bail conditions like weekly reporting to the police station or living at a particular address.

Sometimes the police will object to a charged person being granted bail. The person will be held in custody to appear before the Magistrates Court. The Court will decide whether the person should be granted bail.

The court will consider a person’s personal circumstances, the evidence and if they are an unacceptable risk of failing to appear or committing further offences.

We often get calls from concerned friends, mums and dads or other relatives who find their friends or family members in trouble with the law and behind bars. We can assist people held in the watch-house to apply for bail. Our lawyers regularly appear at bail applications for clients.

The following is information on some of the Bail Offences our Criminal Defence Lawyers have been involved with:-

What the police need to prove

• The accused signed an undertaking on which the accused was granted bail requiring their appearance before a Court. In some cases, the undertaking may also have required the accused to comply with conditions imposed for their release on bail. Usual conditions imposed in bail undertakings relate to:
  1. Residency;
  2. Reporting to a specific police station within certain times;
  3. Curfew; and
  4. No contact with the complainant, named witnesses and on occasion, co-accused.
• The accused broke a condition of that undertaking.

It is an offence if you do not go to court on the date listed in your bail undertaking, the Notice to appear or the Complaint and Summons. The court can issue a warrant for your arrest and the police can charge you with failing to appear.

There are possible defences available and you should contact us for help if you have been charged with failing to appear.

What the police need to prove

• The accused signed an undertaking on which they were granted bail requiring their appearance before a Court.
• The accused failed to surrender into custody in accordance with the undertaking.
• Without reasonable cause; and
• The accused was apprehended under a warrant issued pursuant to s28 or ss28A(1)(a), (b), (c) or (d) of the Bail Act 1980.

Possible defence for breach of bail undertaking

It is a defence for the accused to show on the balance of probabilities that they had reasonable cause:

• For failing to surrender into custody in accordance with the undertaking; and
• For failing to appear before the Court specified in the undertaking and surrender into custody as soon as is reasonable practicable.