A Deer Park man has won a battle for compensation after appealing a Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal [VOCAT] decision that rejected his application.
The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal [VCAT] overturned VOCAT’s decision that found David Ross-Miller was not a primary victim of crime, as defined within the Victims of Crime Assistance Act 1996.
A VCAT hearing was told that in June 2011, Mr Ross-Miller was running a successful scrap metal business. His wife told him one of his employees had sexually propositioned her so he telephoned the employee and told him he was not to have any further dealings with him or his family.
About 10 minutes later the man came into Mr Ross-Miller’s family home and started an altercation in front of Mr Ross-Miller’s wife and two teenage sons. A scuffle broke out before one of Mr Ross-Miller’s sons intervened.
The man then left the house before warning he would be back. About an hour later, Mr Ross-Miller heard crashing noises, which turned out to be the employee and an associate destroying his car with crowbars. Shortly after, “crowbars were coming through the windows,” Mr Ross-Miller said.
He then fled the house, hoping they would not injure his family. He ran into the backyard, jumped the fence and borrowed a bystander’s phone to call police.
Fearing police wouldn’t get there in time, he raced back but didn’t clear the back fence and broke his collarbone. When he arrived back home his wife had been hit and was cowering in the corner with one of their sons, while the other had locked himself in a bedroom.
While VCAT acknowledged that Mr Ross-Miller was not a primary victim of an act of violence because he was not injured as a direct result of an act of violence against him, VCAT senior member Ian Proctor said “a beneficial interpretation of the act is appropriate where there is any doubt as to the interpretation of the meaning of the act’s provisions”.
Mr Ross-Miller was awarded $2554 to cover removalist’s costs to move interstate; a decision prompted by fear of another attack. He was also encouraged to apply to VOCAT to fund counselling.
