An Indian national who came to Australia as an eight-year-old child could be deported to India after the Administrative Appeals Tribunal affirmed the decision to cancel his permanent visa due to his significant criminal history.
39-year-old Paramjeet Singh who has lived “almost all his life” in Australia, had his visa was cancelled in April this year due to his substantial criminal record following his conviction in an assault case in which he was handed a sentence of 13 months in jail.
The AAT heard that Mr Singh was left in the care of his mother in Delhi when his father abandoned him at the age of four. He reunited with his father in Sydney in 1988 and after remaining on different visas for almost ten years, became a permanent resident in 1998.
Substantial criminal record
During the hearing of Mr Singh’s appeal against the mandatory cancellation of his visa, the AAT observed that he had been convicted of some 30 separate offences, including breaches of Apprehended Violence Orders, bail conditions, assault, domestic violence, shoplifting and credit card fraud.
The AAT said Mr Singh’s offences were “serious”.
“They were numerous and repeated. They frequently involved acts of violence. They were perpetrated against vulnerable people (his pregnant partner),” Senior Member of the AAT Chris Puplick AM said.
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Mr Singh’s criminal offending began when he was 19 and continued until 2017. He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for assaulting a pharmacist and a security guard in 2015 when he and his former partner were apprehended shoplifting and he punched and kicked the pharmacist.
The sentence was suspended upon signing a good behaviour bond and on condition that he would not re-offend. However, he reoffended and in 2017 he was sent to jail. As a result, his visa was cancelled.
Police reports produced in the AAT also indicated instances of domestic violence-related incidents between him and his current partner.
A recording of a phone call during his incarceration revealed that Mr Singh tried to persuade his partner to change her testimony and not make herself available to give evidence in court.
Though in his testimony, Mr Singh’s father was supportive of his son and wanted him to stay in Australia, the AAT noted it was “somewhat at odds” with his and his wife’s statements given to the NSW corrective services in which they expressed “serious concerns” about the prospects of their son living with them upon his release from custody.
Manipulating relationships
However, the Tribunal said Mr Singh’s father was anxious to have his support as a “natural desire of any parent to the best for their children”.
Mr Singh’s current partner who is the full-time carer of their daughter born last year while Mr Singh was behind bars, said he was a “changed man” and she wanted him to stay in Australia for emotional and financial support to their daughter.
While the Tribunal said Mr Singh’s staying in Australia would be beneficial for his infant daughter, the Tribunal said it could not accord any “serious weight” to his partner’s testimony, referring to Mr Singh’s efforts to getting her to change the testimony.
Generic picture of a statue of Themis, the Greek God of Justice (AAP Image/Dave Hunt) Source: AAP (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
“If anything, what Mr Singh’s record of his relationship with partners and family demonstrates is a cynical disregard for their wellbeing and a degree of manipulative cynicism when dealing with them,” said Mr Puplick.
The AAT said Mr Singh posed a risk of reoffending that is “certainly well above any concept of being low to minimal”.
Mr Puplick said due to Mr Singh’s inability to manage his “bouts of anger”, the risk to the community is higher from the serious nature of his offending.
“They have been, and might well again be, acts of violence.”
The Tribunal accepted that Mr Singh had lived “almost all his life” in Australia and that there would be “substantial impediments” for him if he is deported to India. It, however, said he was not unaware of aspects of Indian life and culture and would be able to find employment in India due to his qualification and experience.
