Breached a Restraining Order in WA? Strike Three Means Prison

Transcript

You have been charged with breaching a restraining order in Western Australia. The order was civil paper. This charge is criminal. And the West has built something into its law that everyone in your position needs to hear early because it turns small repeated mistakes into something much darker, a three strikes rule. The base numbers first. A single breach carries a fine of up to ten thousand dollars up to two years in prison or both serious enough. But the number that should organize your thinking is not two years. It is three convictions. Here is the rule.

If you are convicted of a third breach and the two earlier convictions happened within the two years before it, the court must impose imprisonment unless that would be clearly unjust, not may, must. In the West, strike three takes the decision about prison largely out of the magistrate's hands. That is why every single alleged breach, even a trivial looking one, deserves a proper defense. What counts as a breach, any condition broken by any route, texts and calls, comments and reactions online, a message passed through someone else, driving past the house when the order says stay away, and the invitation trap.

If the protected person reaches out and you respond, you are the one breaching. The order binds you until a court changes it no matter who called first. The genuine answers. The prosecution must prove you knew about the order, so how and whether you were served matters. They must prove the conduct actually broke a condition, read by its exact words. They must prove identity. And where contact truly happened, the full story, who initiated it, what was said, what you have done since still counts for a great deal when the court decides what happens to you.

From today, three disciplines, total compliance with every condition, because here, the next allegation is worth more than the last. No contact with the protected person by any means, whatever messages arrive. An advice before any plea every time because pleading guilty casually to a minor breach today can quietly load the gun for strike three later. If a condition is unworkable, apply to vary the order. Never improvise. Ten thousand dollars, two years, and a three strikes rule that changes how every single charge should be handled. That is breaching a restraining order in the West.

Treat even the small ones seriously and get help early. Our hotline is free to call at any hour anywhere in the state, and a consultation with a criminal lawyer is a fixed price. The number is on your screen.