FORMER Warrnambool city councillor Jennifer Lowe’s solicitor couldn’t have summed it up better when he said it is one thing to know you are innocent, but another to risk everything to prove it.
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But that’s what Ms Lowe and her husband Robbie had to do to clear their names after being hit with hundreds of theft and fraud charges relating to Ms Lowe’s employment at the Worn Gundidj Aboriginal Co-operative.
The case was a sensation in Warrnambool because of Ms Lowe’s standing as a city councillor when the charges were laid.
There is a fair chance that she failed to get re-elected in 2012 as a result of the publicity surrounding the court proceedings.
The Lowes never gave up and threw everything they had at clearing their name, including mortgaging their house.
It was an intensely stressful and risky strategy, but it paid off.
All charges against them were dismissed, the couple were completely exonerated and on Thursday last week a magistrate awarded them costs of almost $300,000 to be met by Victoria Police.
The decision was a welcome relief for the Lowes because it was not a foregone conclusion, costs not automatically being awarded to defendants found not guilty in criminal prosecutions.
The Lowes have their legal team to thank for the successful outcome that gives them back some financial security and peace of mind.
Victoria Police, on the other hand, should be asking how it failed to emphatically to get even one of the hundreds of original charges to stick.
The prosecution case proved to be a debacle and in hindsight should never have seen the inside of a courtroom.
Jennifer Lowe has never lost interest in the business of the city council and plays an active role behind the scenes despite failing in her bid for a second term.
She has now set her sights firmly on re-election in November 2016 and, buoyed by victory in the fight of her life, will be campaigning hard to prove that she deserves a seat at the table once again.