A mother-of-four has been jailed for lying about being aboriginal so she could take advantage of Victorian bail laws that give indigenous people special treatment.
Hayley Terei, 34 from Craigieburn, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday to two years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 months, after previously pleading guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.
She was arrested and charged in May 2024 over an alleged burglary where guns, gold nuggets and $470,000 in cash were stolen from a home in Hastings, but was granted bail in the Supreme Court after claiming to be of Yorta Yorta and Torres Strait Islander descent via her dead mother.
Terei was charged again after phone recordings revealed she had lied and her mother was in fact from New Zealand and alive, but she was released on bail again in May last year to live at a rehab farm where residents care for animals, do farm chores and enjoy meals prepared by a professional chef.
The court heard on Thursday Terei also lied to a psychologist, telling her she had claimed to be indigenous because she was desperate to be released as her daughter had been involved in a police chase, but the pursuit took place after she was given bail, the Melbourne City News reported.
The prosecution argued the lie was another example of Terei providing misleading information to try to influence the outcome of her case, and the court heard she had also claimed to have been denied access to cultural support, separated from her culture, and not given the opportunity to develop cultural connection.
Judge Trevor Wraight told Terei in sentencing that her conduct “was deliberate and prolonged and had the potential to undermine the legitimacy and advocacy of the legislative regime designed to assist disadvantaged members of the indigenous community”.
“Such conduct must be denounced in strong terms and a message must be conveyed that those contemplating such conduct will be dealt with harshly by the courts,” he said.
While granting Terei bail in May 2024, Supreme Court Justice Rita Incerti noted Victorian courts were required to take into account any issues that arose due to a person’s aboriginality.
They included “historical and ongoing discriminatory systemic factors that have resulted in aboriginal people being over-represented in the criminal justice system”, “the risk of harm and trauma that being in custody poses to aboriginal people”, and “the importance of maintaining and supporting the development of the person’s connection to culture, kinship, family, elders, country and community”, she told the court.
She found that Terei, who has a long criminal history, had a higher risk of harm in custody as a result of being indigenous, and that it was particularly important she was able to spend time with her children “given the intergenerational and ongoing trauma suffered by the separation of aboriginal children from their parents, and the ongoing pain the separation causes”.
“When I look at Ms Terei, a woman who has been denied access to her cultural heritage, who is expressing a desire for cultural support to turn a corner in her life, and with significant personal struggles, I see no good reason for contributing to the stark overrepresentation of aboriginal people on remand,” Justice Incerti said at the time.
She then revoked bail after the phone recordings emerged, but insisted that updates to Victoria’s bail laws did not make it easier for aboriginal people to be released.
“The amendments have not created a more lenient test for aboriginal persons. The amendments are a recognition of specific factors that uniquely affect aboriginal persons and that must be taken into account when determining a bail application for an aboriginal person,” she said.
Header image: Left, right, Hayley Terei.
The post Fake aboriginal jailed for lying about being indigenous to get bail first appeared on The Noticer.
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