The Office of Criminal Injuries Compensation on accepting an application from a victim of crime will on most occasions (there are certain limited circumstances where this will not occur) forward notification of the application to the convicted offender.

Contained in the notice will be the incident date, incident location, Courts location and conviction date. The notice will invite the offender to make any submissions they would like the Assessor of Criminal Injuries Compensation to be aware of within 42 days from the date of the letter.

After reviewing all information received in relation to the victim of crime’s application for criminal injuries compensation, and the Assessor has made a decision to award the victim a sum of compensation, both the victim and the offender are notified of the amount awarded. Both the applicant and the offender have the opportunity if they do not agree with the sum awarded to lodge an appeal with the District Court of WA within 21 days of the date of the letter.

Once the 21 days appeal period has expired if no appeals have been lodged the Office of Criminal Injuries Compensation commences the process of paying the victim of crime the sum of money awarded, and the Recoveries Team is notified of this sum.

The sum of money awarded to the victim is paid to the victim by the State of WA, the recoveries team will then recover the sum awarded to the victim from the offender.

Once the Recoveries Team are notified of the sum awarded they commence recovery by making contact with the offender to confirm the liability to repay this debt to the State and discuss repayment options that are available.

A letter will initially be sent to the offenders address seeking contact. Offenders are strongly encouraged to respond by telephoning the Recoveries Team on (08) 9425 3270 to discuss options for repayment arrangements.

Please note: The amount owing by an offender in a case where they are liable for a payment of criminal injuries compensation made to a victim of a crime is separate to any fine that the offender may have been ordered to pay by the Court. The offender cannot serve time in prison to pay off the amount of a criminal injuries compensation debt therefore it is in their best interests to contact the Recoveries Team to discuss options for repayment promptly.

Ignoring the letters or the amount owing will not make it disappear.

There are several repayment options available to offenders to make repaying this debt as accessible as possible. However in the first instance offenders should contact the Recoveries Team on (08) 9425 3270 to discuss and negotiate the best method of payment suitable to their circumstances. This will help to prevent further recoveries from occurring whilst payment is being made.

Recoveries make repayment as convenient as possible by providing the options to repay below:

Phone - You can pay the amount owed over the phone by calling and speaking to one of the recoveries team on (08) 9425 3270 and quoting your credit or debit card between the hours of 8:00am and 4:30pm (AWST) Australian Western Standard Time. Payments made this way may take 24 hours to process. 24 hours a day.

BPAY - Payments can be made using BPAY through your bank or financial institution. The biller code for the recoveries is 697524, please remember to quote your unique Customer Reference Number.

In person - Pay in person at any Magistrates Court in Western Australia.

Centrepay - Allow Centrelink to make deductions from your fortnightly benefit to pay off the outstanding amount owing. You can pay off the outstanding amount at a minimum of $25 per fortnight. Complete a Centrelink Centrepay Deductions form (available from the Recoveries Office) and return by post to Criminal Injuries Recoveries, Department of Justice, GPO Box F317, PERTH WA 6841 or email to CICRecoveries@justice.wa.gov.au.

By mail - Post a cheque or money order to Criminal Injuries Recoveries, Department of Justice, GPO Box F317, PERTH WA 6841.

Payment Arrangement - Apply for a Payment Arrangement by completing and returning a Payment Arrangement Application Form by post, by email to CICRecoveries@justice.wa.gov.au or by phoning the Criminal Injuries Recoveries Department.

This is a unique customer number that is assigned specifically to you and identifies the payments you make to your criminal injuries compensation debt as you make them. Please note this number may change should the amount owing by you be varied by a Compensation Reimbursement Order (CRO) granted at a Compensation Reimbursement Hearing (See section below on Compensation Reimbursement Hearings).

Once a method of payment and a repayment plan has been agreed with the Recoveries Team, the details of that repayment plan are maintained in the Recoveries Team'S customer records. Payments will then be monitored to ensure that they are made in agreement with the repayment plan. Providing the payments are received by the due date you will not hear from recoveries again.

As stipulated in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 2003, when a compensation award is made in a case where an offender was convicted, the State of Western Australia may apply to an Assessor of Criminal Injuries Compensation for a Compensation Reimbursement Order (CRO) to determine whether the offender should be required to repay the amount awarded, to fix the amount of the debt, and in an appropriate case to provide for the method of repayment of the debt to the State. The application is listed before an Assessor and the offender is served with a notice advising the date, time and purpose of the application.

Where a Compensation Reimbursement Hearing takes place the Assessor determines the appropriate amount of recovery from the offender, taking into account all of the circumstances. Issues which are relevant to this determination include, for example, the offender’s assets, the impact on the offenders earning capacity of a period of imprisonment and issues relating to the offence itself.

In addition, for example, where a repayment arrangement may have been defaulted upon by an offender, and no contact has been made to provide an explanation or re-negotiate repayments the Recoveries Team may list the application before the Assessor, seeking a Compensation Reimbursement Order, prior to commencing legal action to recover the full sum via an application for a Property (Seizure and Sale) Order in the Magistrates Court.