Court ruling will mean the end of payments to charity as part of good behaviour bonds CHARITIES are set to miss out on millions of dollars paid to them by offenders through court orders following a landmark ruling. The decision means Victorian magistrates and judges will no longer be able to order a person to make payments to charity as part of an adjourned undertaking or good behaviour bond, after the City of Melbourne successfully challenged the practice. The council challenged a Magistrate's Court decision that required a man who was guilty of breaching the Food Act to donate $2500 to St Vincent de Paul's food van service. It is common practice for magistrates to require offenders to make a payment to charity when they release them without conviction. Victorian Supreme Court Justice John Dixon today ruled the magistrate erred when he required the man to make payment to St Vincent de Paul as a condition of his adjourned undertaking because such a condition was not within his powers. Pilch, an organisation which appeared as a friend of the court in the case, says the decision threatens the millions of dollars charities receive each year from the court fund. Justice Dixon said it was a longstanding, common practice that offenders make a donation to the court fund or charity. The court fund is distributed to not-for-profit organisations that provide charitable or community services for the benefit of Victorians in need or at a disadvantage within local communities. He said "negative and possibly unintended consequences" would follow from the judgment. Justice Dixon said there was no power in the Sentencing Act to impose a financial penalty, other than a fine, compensation, restitution or costs. He said it may be an "unintended consequence of reforms to sentencing." Pilch director Juanita Pope said the judgment had significant consequences for charities. "I think it's unfortunate that this sentencing practice will end and that as a result of the decision today judges and magistrates will have a more limited range of sentencing options available to them," she said. We would urge parliament to take action to restore this historic sentencing option and allow offenders to contribute to the community through charitable giving as part of an adjourned undertaking. For charities it makes a huge difference. Potentially millions of dollars are distributed to charities in this way every year. It is a very common sentencing practice. It is understood the practice of making donations to the court fund, or poor box as it was previously known, dates back hundreds of years.