False Accusation of Domestic Violence: What Are the Penalties?

Being accused of domestic violence you say you did not commit is a frightening place to sit. You are thinking about your record, your work, and the time you get with your children. Underneath all of that is a question you want answered plainly: does the person who made the accusation face anything?

Yes, they can. In New South Wales, knowingly making a false accusation of domestic violence can be a criminal offence, and the maximum penalties are serious: up to seven years for a false accusation, ten years for perjury, fourteen years for perverting the course of justice.

Two things sit alongside that answer, and you deserve both of them. The person has to have known the claim was false when they made it. And to convict, the prosecution has to prove that beyond reasonable doubt. Charges of that kind are not common. So the law is there, but it is not a quick remedy because an allegation against you was wrong.

Here is what the offences actually are, which one applies to which situation, and what you can do about a false allegation right now.

Is it a crime to falsely accuse someone of domestic violence?

Yes, if the person knew the accusation was false when they made it. Knowledge is the dividing line. Being honestly wrong about what happened is not an offence. Knowingly naming a person you know is innocent, or knowingly reporting something you know did not happen, can be.

There is no single offence called “making a false domestic violence allegation”. What a person can be charged with depends on what they did: made a report to police, named someone they knew was innocent, swore it under oath, or manufactured evidence to make it stick. The table below sets out the four offences that cover those situations, with the section and the maximum penalty for each.

The offences and the maximum penalties

Read those numbers as ceilings, not forecasts. A maximum penalty is what the worst version of the offence attracts, with the worst history behind it. It is not the sentence a first-time offender receives for a single false statement. The same gap between the maximum and the realistic outcome runs through domestic violence sentencing generally, which is what we set out for first-time domestic violence offenders.

Which offence fits which situation

The four situations below are the ones that come up most. Find the one closest to yours.

“A report was made to police about me, and it later turned out to be untrue.” Likely exposure for the person who made the report: public mischief under s 547B, but only if the prosecution can prove they knew the report was false when they made it. A report that was honestly believed and turned out to be wrong is not this offence.

“Someone named me deliberately, knowing I had done nothing, so I would be investigated.” Likely exposure for the person who made the accusation: making a false accusation under s 314, maximum seven years. The knowledge element is the whole offence. The prosecution has to prove the accuser knew you were innocent.

“They swore it in a statement, or said it on the stand.” Likely exposure for the person who gave the evidence: perjury under s 327, maximum ten years. Once an account is given under oath or affirmation, the stakes for the person giving it change completely.

“They fabricated evidence, or pressured someone else to back the story up.” Likely exposure for the person who did it: perverting the course of justice under s 319, maximum fourteen years. This is the most serious of the four because it attacks the process itself, not just one person’s reputation.

A failed allegation is not the same as a false one

This is the part people do not appreciate until it is explained to them, and it is worth slowing down for.

An allegation that gets withdrawn, or that a court is not satisfied of, is not automatically a false accusation. Two different standards are running side by side.

An AVO is a civil protective order. A court can make one on the balance of probabilities, which means more likely than not. It is not a criminal conviction, and the person who applied for it does not have to prove anything beyond reasonable doubt.

The offences above are criminal. Police investigate and decide whether to lay a charge, and it is worth understanding who decides to charge someone before you assume it will happen. To convict, the prosecution then has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the accuser knew the claim was false when they made it. Proving what was in someone’s head at the moment they spoke is genuinely difficult, and that is by design.

That gap explains why prosecutions of this kind are uncommon even though the offences carry serious maximums. It also explains something that frustrates people: an AVO application against you being dismissed does not, on its own, hand you a case against the person who made it.

The courts do take domestic violence seriously, and there is published sentencing guidance on domestic violence offences that judicial officers work from. None of that changes the standard the prosecution has to meet against someone who lied.

How false and exaggerated claims play out in AVO matters

Most people meet this issue through an AVO, not through a criminal charge. Orders in this state are made under the Crimes (Domestic and Personal Violence) Act 2007 (NSW), and three points matter.

First, applying for an AVO that fails is not by itself a crime. People are allowed to seek protection and be wrong about the risk.

Second, the criminal exposure comes from what was said and how. A false statement sworn in AVO proceedings can be perjury. A false report to police that starts the process can be public mischief, or making a false accusation if a specific innocent person was named.

Third, these allegations often surface in the middle of a parenting or property dispute, which is where most of the people reading this first meet them. That timing is not proof of anything on its own, in either direction, and courts know it.

If an order has been applied for against you, the practical work is defending an AVO on the evidence, not proving the other person lied.

When the write-up does not match what happened

Not every allegation that goes wrong is a lie. Sometimes an incident is real, and the description of it grows.

We acted for a woman whose argument with her husband was about the laundry. She threw a basket of clothes and the clothes ended up on the floor. Police attended, and the report recorded the incident as damage to property. She was named as the defendant in an order protecting her husband, who told police he did not want the order and wanted to stay in the relationship.

We reviewed the material and put it in front of the court. At the first mention the magistrate would not deal with it. What had happened was not damage to property, and the court refused to confirm the order.

That matter has stayed with me, because something small can be written up in a way that takes on its own life, and a few pages of statements can start to read like a mountain of evidence against a person. Police act cautiously in these situations, and there is good reason for that, because the cost of getting a genuine domestic violence matter wrong is measured in someone’s safety. But an allegation is not a finding. Courts test them, and they refuse orders that do not hold up.

Why people make false or exaggerated claims

The honest answer on how often this happens is that nobody can give you a reliable number, and the percentages that get quoted online do not survive a close look. What I can tell you is where these claims tend to come from: a contested parenting matter, a property settlement with a lot riding on it, or plain retaliation after a separation ends badly.

Context is not evidence, though. Knowing that pattern does not establish that your matter fits it, and on its own it is not an argument you can run. What decides it is the material: what was said, when, to whom, and what supports it.

What to do if you have been falsely accused

Five things, in this order.

1. Get advice early. Before the first mention, before you write anything to anyone. What you do in the first week shapes what the court sees later, and it is much easier to build a position than to unpick one.
2. Preserve everything. Messages, call logs, emails, photographs with their original file data, location history, receipts, and the names of anyone who was there. Save it somewhere that is not just your phone.
3. Do not contact the person who made the accusation. Not to explain, not to ask why, not through a friend. If an order is in place, contact can itself be a breach of that order, and breaching an AVO is a separate problem you do not need.
4. Keep a calm written record. Dates, times, what happened, who was present. Written at the time, not reconstructed months later.
5. Understand the process you are in. Know what happens at an AVO court hearing, what your options are for defending it, and how people get an AVO dismissed when the evidence does not support it.

The burden is not on you to prove your innocence. It sits with whoever brings the application, and in criminal proceedings with the prosecution, at the highest standard the law has.

Can you take action against the person who accused you?

There are two main civil routes in Australia. Both are real, and both are harder than they sound.

Defamation, if the false allegation was published to other people. In Dabrowski v Greeuw [2014] WADC 175, the Western Australian District Court awarded a husband $12,500 after his estranged wife posted online that she had suffered domestic violence during their marriage. It is a Western Australian decision, so it illustrates the principle rather than binding a NSW court, but it shows the door exists.

Malicious prosecution, where someone deliberately sets the criminal process in motion without reasonable cause, the proceedings end in your favour, and they acted with malice. Each of those elements has to be proved.

Both routes are slow, fact-dependent and expensive, and neither is a substitute for dealing with the allegation in front of you first. If you want to know whether your situation is one of the few where it is worth it, that is a conversation to have before you spend anything, and we cover when you can sue for a false allegation separately.

Where to from here

An accusation like this feels like it is about your character. In the courtroom it is about evidence, standards of proof, and what the material actually supports. That is a much narrower question than it feels like right now, and it is one you can prepare for.

What me and my team do is straightforward. We look at what has actually been alleged, we work out which parts are supported and which are not, and we tell you honestly whether this is a matter to contest, negotiate, or resolve another way. If you want to talk it through with an AVO lawyer first, book a free discovery call or ring us on 1300 614 732. You will leave the call knowing exactly what has been alleged and what can actually be proved.