A Sydney man has avoided going to jail after sending offensive and menacing emails about Labor’s Kristy McBain before she won the 2020 Eden-Monaro by-election.
The Australian Federal Police charged Cheng Fan from Blacktown with using a telecommunications service to menace, harass or cause offence.
On Thursday he was convicted in Penrith District Court of several offences relating to spam emails sent during the by-election campaign and sentenced to 20 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended.
Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said that the case marks Australia’s first successful prosecution of a person for breaching electoral laws that prohibit misleading or deceiving Australians about the act of casting a vote
“Yesterday’s sentencing of Mr Fan demonstrates that those who seek to undermine the integrity of Australia’s electoral system will be brought to account,” Mr Rogers said in a statement on Friday.
Fan was also ordered to be of good behaviour for three years, accept Community Corrections Service supervision for as long as considered necessary and continue treatment for mental illness for two years.
