An Indian migrant who claimed his alcohol dependency was caused by stress related to childhood abuse and a difficult marriage, has been refused Australian citizenship over his repeated drink driving offences and his failure to disclose some offences in his citizenship application.
30-year-old Mr Singh* was caught for drink driving three times, had his licence disqualified three times and was caught driving while disqualified once, among other offences between 2009 and 2014. He was given a three months suspended sentence for a drink driving offence in 2011.
After Mr Singh was caught for drink driving in 2014, his driver licence was disqualified for three years and was convicted for breaching alcohol interlock (a vehicular breathalyser).
After arriving in Australia in January 2008 as an international student, Mr Singh got married in 2013 and became a permanent resident in November 2013. However, when he applied for Australian citizenship in September 2016, he did not disclose all his convictions. The following year, his application was refused on the basis that he did not satisfy the ‘good character requirement’.
Mr Singh told the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that he took to drinking due to stress in his marriage and his childhood memories of the bashing he’d suffered at the hands of his father in India.
“I did not drink out of fun, but out of necessity,” he said.
He said he’d obtained psychological counselling for his drinking after being charged in 2014 and had since turned his life around.
“I genuinely believe I won't drink again, not only because I know what alcohol can do to a person, but it actually no longer holds any appeal for me whatsoever. I don't miss it and have no cravings for it,” he said. He told the Tribunal that he hadn’t had alcohol for the previous two years and he didn’t intend to ever drink again.
However, the Tribunal noted that contrary to Mr Singh’s claim of becoming a teetotaller, he himself and some witnesses gave evidence of his ongoing albeit infrequent drinking.
While his friends told the Tribunal he was of good character and was trying to help others dealing with the issue of substance abuse, his employer said he was a reliable and exemplary employee.
When questioned about not disclosing all his offences in the citizenship application, Mr Singh said he declared the offences based on his memory. He said when he prepared his application, he was working night shifts and his father was coming to visit him.
His police check only revealed the offences that Mr Singh had disclosed in his application, but he denied that he tried to take advantage of the mistake in the police record.
However, AAT Senior Member Rodrigo Pintos-Lopez said Mr Singh had “intentionally” failed to provide details of his convictions in his application.
“It is completely implausible that the [Mr Singh] would have forgotten about his 2014 convictions and, in particular of his having been convicted of breaching an alcohol interlock condition.
“In addition, I make that finding because the [his] history of offending is a source of great shame to him, the details of which are unlikely to have been forgotten now or then.”
*His last name
