Calls to shut down ‘scam’ sovereign citizen websites
Duncan Murray |
An ex-magistrate has called for websites claiming to coach users how to get out of traffic fines using pseudo-legal “sovereign citizen” tactics to be shut down and those behind them prosecuted.
Southern Cross University associate professor David Heilpern, a former NSW magistrate, examined two websites that were dishing out dodgy legal advice in return for payment.
He found them to be riddled with falsehoods, such as “governments are private corporations and have no power to make or enforce laws” and “without agreement by the person charged, the law does not apply”.
Mr Heilpern will present his findings at a University of Technology Sydney conference on Friday examining the rise of the so-called sovereign citizen movement.
In his paper, he outlined the problems both police and judges had in dealing with the growing numbers of the movement’s adherents.
“This mishmash of pseudo law is not akin to a disprovable physical reality – for example that the earth is flat,” he wrote.
“That is because law is, at its heart, a human construct.
“The only reality check is the acceptance or otherwise by the courts – and none of this gobbledygook has ever been adopted in any court in Australia.”
Mr Heilpern said of most concern was the websites that encouraged subscribers to break the law in a manner which could land them behind bars.
“I cannot believe that various federal and state consumer protection agencies have not shut these scam sites down given that they encourage serious criminal offences, and advise readers to use claims, tactics and legal arguments that have never worked in any court in Australia,” he said.
Mr Heilpern argued in his paper that the websites were responsible for false and misleading conduct and in some cases had arguably engaged in crimes by inciting others to break the law.
“It beggars belief that they have not been prosecuted for these publications,” he wrote.
The sovereign citizens movement, loosely made up of people who believe laws do not apply to them unless they consent, has gained followers in the past decade.
That growth has been further fuelled by the pandemic with an accompanying rise in conspiracy theorists and anti-government activists.
UTS associate professor Harry Hobbs said some members of the movement could be at the extreme end of the spectrum, resulting in tragic consequences in recent years.
That included the deaths of two Queensland police officers and another man in December, when they were fatally ambushed at Wieambilla by a trio with links to the sovereign citizen movement.
AAP
