Why Trespassing Can Be A Shortcut To A Criminal Record
Posted onIt may not seem like the most serious offence that a lawyer, such as Criminal Lawyers Perth, may have to represent their client for, but trespassing is a crime and one for which conviction and punishment can leave the offender with a criminal record.
For a first offence, you might be given a fine, or maybe even released on the proviso that you pay a bond, especially in cases where the trespass was not deemed especially serious, and no damage or loss occurred.
However, do it again, and you can expect the penalty to be more severe with probation, community service, and ultimately, imprisonment, all possible punishments.
Hopefully, you are a law-abiding citizen, and never likely to face any of those penalties, but given that a surprisingly large amount of confusion exists with regards to trespassing law, we thought we would help you make sure.
Part of the problem is that trespass law comes under both criminal law and tort law. Tort law relates to civil matters, whereby someone could sue for damage caused due to trespass. For this reason, many are under the illusion that trespassing is purely a civil matter, and only find out it is actually a criminal matter too, when they are arrested.
The legal definition of trespass is entering private or specified public places without permission unless it was for a legitimate reason. The sort of public places covered by this include schools and health facilities. Private places include private land, homes, and business premises.