An Albury man who lied to a magistrate in order for an accused criminal to get bail has backed-out of a plan to fight the matter in court.
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Brett William Dyball appeared in Albury Local Court today for a contested hearing on a charge of making a false statement on oath amounting to perjury.
That amounted to Dyball claiming he didn’t have a criminal record and so was an acceptable person to act as surety for the accused.
But his change of heart did not come until the matter came before magistrate Rodney Brender in a call-over of the day’s list.
Mr Brender asked Dyball, wearing a neck brace, if he was pleading not guilty.
“No your honour. I’m pleading guilty.”
With that Mr Brender decided to proceed to sentence, then considered it probably more appropriate to adjourn the matter for six weeks so he could get a pre-sentence report prepared for Dyball.
A Director of Public Prosecutions representative then told Mr Brender that Dyball’s answers in the witness box had a considerable impact on then magistrate Tony Murray’s decision to grant bail on October 30.
“It is an offence I would submit,” she said, “that strikes at the very heart of the criminal justice system.”
The court was told that it was not the first time Dyball had tried to hoodwink the system.
He also had a conviction, from 2015, of making a false claim to police, along with other offences including drug-related matters.
But this latest offence only arose when he went to court in November because he wanted to be discharged as a surety. He was arrested.
He wanted to tell the court how he had not seen the defendant since agreeing to go surety.
Dyball will be sentenced on August 27.