A Service New South Wales employee has been charged after allegedly using her work computer to supply a residential address to the group that kidnapped Peter Vuong last month. Vuong’s captors who kidnapped and held him hostage in a house at Belmore for six days have been charged and identified as six men, aged 19, 20 and 21, for their alleged roles in the incident.
Following their arrest, police began investigating Sira Elkheir, 21, who has been accused of using her position as a Service NSW employee to supply an address for crypto trader Tran Dinh, one of Vuong’s close associates.
Elkheir has been charged with kidnapping for the intent of ransom, causing an unauthorised computer function to commit a serious indictable offence, accessing restricted computer data, and participating in a criminal group.
Her bail conditions include the surrender of her passport, the imposition of a nightly curfew, and the payment of a $300,000 surety which will be forfeited if she fails to appear in Court.
What constitutes a ‘criminal group’?
A criminal group is defined as a group of three or more people who have an objective to:
- Obtain material benefits from conduct that constitutes a serious indictable offence, or;
- Commit serious violence offences, such as conduct resulting in the loss of life or serious risk to life, serious injury (or risk of injury) to a person, serious damage to property in which a person’s safety is endangered or perverting the course of justice in relation to such conduct.
In November last year, the New South Wales Parliament amended the law to state that you can still be classed as participating in a criminal group even if you are not a member of the group.
Participating in a criminal group is against the law if you know, or ought reasonably to know that it is a criminal group, or that your participation in the group contributes to criminal activity. The maximum penalty for participating is 5 years’ imprisonment.
The maximum penalty increases to 15 years imprisonment where the offender:
- Participates in a criminal group whose activities are organised and on-going by directing any of the activities of the group;
- Knows that it is a criminal group, and
- Knows, or is reckless as to whether, that participation contributes to the occurrence of any criminal activity.
If you are charged with this offence, or similar, call us on (02) 8080 7585 to arrange a conference with an experienced defence lawyer today.
