r/legaladviceaustralia

Bit of a legal question for the AusLegal brains...

My cousin is "Officer AB" from the LECC's Operation Harrisdale report... the one about the NorthConnex tunnel crash.

From what's already public... he was a NSW Police Inspector in a specialist command, crashed an unmarked police car into the crash cushion in the NorthConnex tunnel back in May 2023... the LECC later found serious misconduct, including leaving the scene and allegations about avoiding a breath test... and lying about being on the piss (he said he fell asleep for insurance purposes) he was originally charged with high-range PCA and DUI, but later convicted of the lesser offence of mid-range drink driving in the Downing Centre Local Court in a closed courtroom. The bloke knoked down over 17 drinks down at the Mercantile at the Rocks, was seen dancing at McDonalds on CCTV.

His name's been suppressed, so all the public reports call him "Officer AB"...

Here's what I'm trying to work out...

Because he's my cousin (estranged we don't get on), and I obviously know who he is without reading the news... does the suppression order stop me from telling people who he is??? I mean disclosing his name as AB because I am a family member? is there any lawyers here?

Like...

• Does the order apply to everyone... or mainly the media???
• If a mate asked me who Officer AB is... can I legally tell them... or is that an offence???
• Does it cover private chats at home... down the pub... or just publishing stuff online???
• What about posting on Reddit, Facebook or X... is that automatically a breach???
• If half the family already knows... does that make any difference???
• Can an ordinary person actually get charged or done for contempt for naming someone who's covered by a NSW suppression order???

Not looking to name him here... and not asking whether I should... just genuinely trying to understand how these suppression orders work in NSW... because if they apply to everyone, does that basically mean I can never talk about what my own cousin did???

Anyway he was disqualified from driving for over a year, lost his job.... can you believe he flushed his job down the toilet in one night out with the lads? Inspector of Special Command? What a total GRONK!!!!

Terminated from a casual job this week.

Most of the termination letter was the standard form.

However, the last line was:

"Access to the business premises and contact with company staff is no longer permitted."

Now, I can understand not being allowed in the back-of-housr area. But this is, in part at least, a retail business. I have formed bonds with some of the extant staff. Is there any way that this restriction can apply to the customer facing parts of the business or my interactions with my former co-workers?

Hi, I'm 17 and recently received 2 random transfers of money to my bank account from an old employer of mine. I used to work at the business around a year ago but then was basically ghosted by the boss & was never contacted for any new shifts or an actual termination. Around 2 weeks ago I recieved the first payment and thought it was a late final shift payment finally getting to me or something? Then came another payment yesterday around the same amount late in the night, and the boss of the business called me this morning & texted me this

"Hey ___, You got paid ___ 15 days ago. And ____ yesterday. Legally you’re not entitled for that money. It was mistakenly paid my accountant. Can you transfer that money back asap."

And then sent the payment info. Am I legally required to pay him back if it was caused by a mistake on their part?

Hello im in victoria 17yr old male, i was buying drugs of this drug dealer and he ran of with my money and all i got was a bag of garlic and salt what do i do?

I want my money back thats all i care about but what would my legal consequences be considering i had intent to buy drugs but there never were drugs?

The drug we are talkig about is a Q of meth.

I have messages on snapchat should i save those and show police?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on enforcing a New Zealand Disputes Tribunal judgment in Australia.

I successfully obtained a legally enforceable judgment against someone in New Zealand, but before I could enforce it, they left the country and moved to Australia (Queensland, as far as I know).

I'm now trying to register and enforce the judgment in Australia, but my biggest hurdle is that I don't have their current residential address. I have their full name, phone number, email address, and business details (including an ABN), but not their home address.

I'm considering hiring a skip tracing company to locate them, but I'm not sure which companies are reputable or whether it's worth paying for a "no find, no fee" service.

Has anyone here been through a similar process? Are there any reputable Australian skip tracers you'd recommend, or is there another way to obtain a current address for the purpose of enforcing a judgment?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Up top, I’m going to provide a legend for names and then I’ll get into the story.

Partner- my partner who I am writing this on behalf of, who has approved me writing on this.

Mother - Partner’s mother who has guardianship over the grandmother.

Grandmother- my partner’s elderly grandmother on my partner’s mother’s side.

This started years ago when my partner’s mother agreed to take in the grandmother from an Aunt against the advice of my partner. The aunt and the grandmother both lived in America at the time, the grandmother was moved here without real understanding or consent given as to what what was going on. The grandmother I believe was under the impression she was visiting, but the Aunt sold the house in the US out from under the grandmother and pissed the money away, and the grandmother has no money for her retirement. This isn’t about what happened there, that’s its own issue.

Since then, my partner’s mother has gotten more controlling of the grandmothers movements in the house, as the mother is disabled and has set up cameras and locks around the house to monitor her, as the mother isn’t well herself and needs to go to work. The grandmother seemingly has dementia and will regularly try to pack her bags to go back to the US, she doesn’t know what is going on, but she does understand how my partner’s mother is trying to control the grandmothers movements in the house and is rebelling against these constraints. It should be noted that even when she had her full faculties, the grandmother was abusive to my partner’s mother growing up and they both held resentment against each other to this day, baring dementia.

Ultimately, the situation is this, them living together is untenable. They can’t put her in an aged care facility here as she’s a non-Aus citizen and the path to citizenship, even if she wasn’t handicapped, would likely be too long a process to get her in. The mother cannot afford to pay for a US aged care program, nor do I think she’d be willing to if she could. The partner’s aunts are of no help, they dumped their mother her and have either pissed away the money or will claim they are not in a position to help, they both live in different countries. At this stage, the best idea they have is to let the visa lapse, something my partner has spent a considerable amount of time working on against her own will, to get done so the grandmother could live here. The grandmother would be sent back to America where she’d effectively be homeless. It should be noted and emphasised, the grandmother is not an Australian citizen, she does not receive any form of aged care or pensioner support from the government. Even though she is an American citizen, she is not receiving any social security from America because my partner’s aunt messed that up too.

They are struggling with this impossible situation, if there is any advice for something we haven’t thought of, it would be greatly appreciated.

I have no visibility (due to parked cars on my street) when exiting my driveway. I live on a street directly connected to the Pacific hwy and near to a train station, so the street is fairly busy. I have gotten into multiple near misses as I had literally 0 visibility - when exiting I will turn off music, open my windows, and just try to listen to see if there's any cars coming.

I contacted my council about this last year but they have continuously said it's not an issue. I submitted a complaint about the council's findings and the came back in a week (fastest thing the council's ever done) saying that the initial finding was fine and they're not going to do anything about it.

at this point it's just a matter of time before there's an accident and I'm feeling super lost - what am I supposed to do in this situation? any help or ideas is very appreciated

I am looking for advice, as I am attending court with TransportNSW for failure to nominate - company - sec off.

I have had my rego suspended in September 2025 (completely unaware no letter received) and was driving unaware due to a mix of lack of 21st century notice and personal circumstances. I accrued a lot of fines 2025-2026 as I had significant personal concerns in this time and wasn’t managing well. I was not in state for significant parts of 2025-2026 and struggling with life when in state, and didn’t received most of these fines. This resulted in me me bulk paying a lot when received including accidentally a company fine on return to state. I was notified and I nominated but made an error on form I sent when notified I had wrongly paid a company fine. I did not follow up for some time as personal situation went from bad to worse but did nominate eventually. However, during this worse phase I got more fines and these were never received by me at all.

I subsequently become aware of these (March 2026 - find an car unregistered fine in mail) and nominate for them too, late again but nominated again. I appealed the late nomination penalties and assumed I would be successful given circumstances, that was not the case and instead I must meet TransportNSW in court.

For reference this occurs of a year period (March 2025-2026) and starts when I leave the state to carer of both parents, as one parent that cares for the other parent had broke their leg. I pay the fine on return and start the problem (May 2025), however, during this period I crash as managing my two businesses and care-ring for two people was too much. I am subsequently diagnosed with ADHD in June, my relationship of 14 years ends and my father dies in October 2025, I also start medication for ADHD then as well. I manage the death and breakup October 2025 to Feburary 2026 whiling helping sell my moms house, before she moves to live with me (Feb 2026) while we find an apartment central Coast for her (completed May 2025). During this time I stabilise on medication. I became aware of fines situation in March 2026 and begun dealing with it then. I paid a few, contested most but appeals rejected by RevenueNSW with documents supplied. However, I was extremely critical of RevenueNSW in appeal as no 21st century notice system is flawed to say the least.

I am looking for advice on pealing guilty or not guilty, what to expect, etc. I have references from friends, colleagues and surviving parents plus documentation of above issues and attempts to rectify once aware.

Location: Melbourne.

Hi, I work at Chemist Warehouse in Australia, from the 22nd of June 2026 I along with other employees are being required to assist with a special AI “zone” which captures the entire store with the goal of “helping stock management”.
This requires at least 4 separate retail floor members to wear a AI camera around our necks for a minimum of 12 hours a working day.
This camera will be capturing all things happening in the store, AUGMODO “promises” they don’t use any personal info, they show a blurred image of a customer on their advertisement page, which may be all well and good for supermarket uses.

Where my worry comes into place is the Pharmacy, as someone who occasionally works on the register, I frequently deal with patient prescriptions and repeats in my view, with Full names, addresses and medications of the customers/ patients in my view, am I violating people’s rights by wearing this camera and in turn at risk of being in trouble.

No one deserves their privacy infringed and I don’t think im in need of help more than the patients but id still like to be clear.

Thank you

My partner and I each kept our surnames after marriage (wasn't worth the paperwork in our mind, and ahven't had any problems). We're expecting now, and intended to give our child a hyphenated surname which both our names. For example, if I'm Jane Doe and my husband is John Smith, our child would be Jack Doe-Smith.

Is it likely to present any legal issues going forward that we would have different names from our child?

Got shown a video from a cop who wasnt on shift when the incident happened of the man falling down an air vent. He was laughing at this video of the man at the bottom of the shaft who had visible injuries and was vulnerable.

At the time I didn't know how to react to the footage but on reflection I am quite uncomfortable that officers would send videos like that around to their mates in the force. Does anyone know who i should talk to or what I should do? Definitely makes me not want to trust the police if I am ever in a situation..

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Hi everyone,

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I posted online about this before, but seeking more clarification.

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In Dec 2023, I was charged with two offences. In first court hearing, the more severe charge got dropped and then the second one was dismissed under Section 20BQ1C Crimes Act 1914 due to mental health issues.

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I was worried what would that mean when it came to employment as in would show up on my records. I checked online and it said no. Ppl on this sub advised me to get a nsw police check which i did and it came back today as no conviction.

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Now given that my initial offences were common weath offences and not state ones does that mean it wont show up or it will show up when employeer does their own check and more investigation?

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Do common wealth charges show up on nsw police records? I tried calling both AFP and NSW records and both tried to blame each other and aaid to ask the other body.

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My question is that what are more ways I can be sure?

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Thanks

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Note: i dont think this is relevant, but when I made the police check i forgot to capitalize the first letter of my name. I called them and they said it was okay.

My de facto was killed in a car crash a few months back. Police have charged the other driver. We have a young daughter and right now i'm struggling badly with the funeral costs (around $14k). We had to borrow money just to give him a proper send off. Is there a way to apply for funeral compensation? can i use foyle legal for this process? do they cover it if you can't pay upfront? how does the process actually work? Thanks, any info helps.