What to do when you go to court.
Most cases of serious fraud whether prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office or the police are laid indictably.
But before we get into that what does prosecute mean. Prosecution is the next phase on from a criminal investigation.
All criminal investigation is directed at gathering evidence for a prosecution of a person for an offence or a crime that is an act banned by act of parliament.
Once an investigator goes to court and swears an information alleging the commission of a crime the prosecution begins from that point.
The process of prosecution involves the proof of a crime by the production of evidence in court.
Usually witnesses are called who may give oral or spoken evidence from the witness box or they may produce things such as a weapon or documents sometimes referred to as real evidence.
In my experience a lot of people think that once they have been arrested and charged by the police that that is the end of the matter and they are guilty.
People in New Zealand are very law abiding and strong supporters of the police.
This can sometimes work against them if they themselves are on the receiving end of a police or any governmental investigation of a criminal kind.
As I said earlier most serious cases of fraud or other crime are laid indictably.This means they can only be dealt with in the indictable jurisdiction of the District Court or the High Court. Most cases in those jurisdictions are dealt with by way of jury trial.
I will continue further next blog. In the meantime any questions just email me.