Waldron v R [2026] NSWCCA 154

Waldron v R [2026] NSWCCA 154. The Court of Criminal Appeal considered convictions for corruptly receiving benefits and aiding and abetting another executive to do likewise. The Crown alleged that documents supporting Waldron’s legitimate-payment explanation were fabricated after charge and back-dated. The trial judge instead found they were contemporaneous devices disguising corrupt rewards, although the prosecutor had expressly declined to advance that theory. The Court unanimously held that conviction on this unnotified basis denied procedural fairness and materially affected the reasoning to guilt. The proviso did not apply. Time was extended, leave granted, the appeal allowed, the convictions and sentence quashed, and a retrial ordered.