Director of Public Prosecutions v Angeleski

[2022] VCC 1482

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

CR-23-00996

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

STEVEN ANGELESKI

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	16 August 2023
DATE OF SENTENCE:	23 August 2023
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Angeleski
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 1482

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:Criminal Law – Sentence – guilty plea.

Catchwords:              Sentencing – traffick a drug of dependence  - traffick a drug of dependence commercial quantity – dealing with property suspected of being proceeds of crime – possess a prohibited weapon – primary role – mid-range seriousness – general deterrence – little evidence of remorse - rehabilitation guarded – totality.

Legislation Cited:      Crimes Act 1958 (Vic); Drugs, Poisons and Controlled Substances Act 1981(Vic); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic); Confiscation Act 1997 (Vic).

Cases Cited:Verdins v R (2007) 16 VR 269; Brown (aka Davis) v The Queen [2020] VSCA 60; Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169.

Sentence:Total effective sentence 4 years, 5 months; non-parole period 2 years, 11 months; 274 days reckoned as already served; 6AAA: 6 years; non-parole period 4 years.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr A. Moore	Office of Public Prosecutions
For Accused	Mr K. McDonald	Sofra Solicitors

HIS HONOUR:

1Steven Angeleski, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking in a drug of dependence in April and August 2022, trafficking a commercial quantity of a drug of dependence in November 2022, possessing $12,450 reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime, two charges of possessing a prohibited weapon, and refusing to assist police by providing a pin to your phone.

Summary of offending

2The agreed basis for your guilty pleas is set out in the summary of prosecution opening dated 17 July 2023.

3In summary, during April 2022 you sold methylamphetamine to Shannon Peasley on two occasions. First, a bag of about 28 grams for $6,200 and secondly a ball of about 3.5 grams for $950 (Charge 1).

4In August 2022, you and three others were involved in a sale of 7 grams of methylamphetamine worth $1,600 to an undercover police operative. Initially, the covert operative spoke to an alleged co-accused who referred them to another, who in turn referred them to third person who took the money and retrieved the drugs from you at your home (Charge 2).

5On 22 November 2022, police executed a search warrant at your home and arrested you.

6In your bedroom, they found a bag containing 10.6 grams (88 per cent pure) of methylamphetamine; $610 cash; an extendable baton (summary Charge 10) and a taser (summary Charge 11) and the key to a safe that you had bought on 9 November 2022.

7They also found that safe at your home and inside it 349.9 grams of methylamphetamine, $11,800 cash and multiple Ziploc bags.

8The total quantity of methylamphetamine seized on that day was 360.7 grams (Charge 3). The total amount of cash reasonably suspected as being proceeds of crime was $12,450 (summary Charge 9).

9A commercial quantity of the drug is 250 grams. The value of this quantity of drug, that is the quantity found, if sold in bulk was approximately $85,000 and if sold in smaller quantities, up to $185,000.

10Police also seized your mobile phone and directed you to provide the PIN code for it and told you of your obligation to do so under s456AA of the Crimes Act 1958 (Vic). However, you refused to do so (summary Charge 12).

Procedural history

11Following your arrest, police questioned you about what they found. You lied to them, saying that safe was not yours, that you had not seen inside it and that you did not purchase it. You denied selling drugs to Ms Peasley and said you had not sold drugs for quite a few years. You said you had only been using ice for the last couple of months.

12Police then showed you footage of you purchasing the safe and once confronted with the proof of your lies you admitted that safe and the drugs were yours.

13You were remanded in custody, where you have remained since. You applied for bail, which was refused on 5 May 2023, after which you then indicated your intention to plead guilty.

14You pleaded guilty in circumstances where the evidence against you, bolstered by your admissions, can only be described as overwhelming. You will, nevertheless, receive a substantial reduction in your sentence for pleading guilty. Your plea demonstrates a willingness to facilitate the course of justice and it has utilitarian value, including by avoiding the necessity for a trial. Doing so at a time when the court has a backlog of trials to hear due to COVID increases the value of your plea.

15I do not find however that you have expressed significant remorse for your offending or shown any real insight into its impact on the others in the community. You lied to police soon after your arrest, you sought bail after a few months later, knowing you would very likely receive a lengthy sentence. You have provided no evidence from any source about any change in attitude about trafficking drugs, only in reports from your CISP assessment some months ago, that you are ashamed at how your arrest has affected you and your family.

Personal circumstances

16You are fortunate to enjoy the ongoing support of your family who, including your parents and wife, attended court for your plea hearing.

17You were born in Wodonga and grew up in the Shepparton area. Since finishing high school here in 2007, you have worked in various positions including as a coordinator and operations manager in various orchards and cool store operations. References by Brett Westin and Gerard Alampi state that when you were working with them they found you to be an honest and reliable. (Exhibit 4).

18You enjoy a relationship of some years with your now wife and had purchased a home with her in 2020 for which you are joint mortgagors (Exhibit 1). You were married in early November 2022 and honeymooned at Port Douglas, Qld, in the weeks leading up to your arrest.

19At the time of your arrest, you were living at home with your parents still. Your counsel submitted that you did so in an attempt to provide a calming influence in what has at times been a volatile setting and to support your father with his various medical needs. It is difficult to understand however how trafficking a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine was in any way consistent with these purposes.  You were doing so from their home.   I have been provided no material that might assist me to understand how or why you came to offend in this way.

20In the absence of material upon which I could base any realistic finding, I cannot regard the likelihood that your trafficking was an expression of anything other than your greed, regardless of the consequences to those around you and to the wider community.

21You have a relevant criminal history. In 2012 you were convicted and sentenced to a community correction order for trafficking methylamphetamine and related offences. Again in 2013, you were convicted and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment for further trafficking and breaching the CCO. These prior matters are of obvious significance.

22

This history is consistent with what you told workers in the CISP program in April 2023, when you reported first using ice socially when you were

20 years old and returning to it following the 2013 sentence (Exhibit 2). I accept that this kind of drug use has been a feature of your history. I do not accept, however, that your drug use had led to such a degraded ability to make good decisions that you were in effect just trafficking to support your own habit. During the years of your use, you held down responsible jobs and impressed your fellow workers with your reliability and hard work. The scale of your offending before me was well above what might be called street-level.

23In custody, you have completed training courses relating to work skills (Exhibit 3), but nothing relating to drug use. I accept that this demonstrates that you have had an eye for the future and your ability to obtain work in prison and following your release, which is positive.

Sentencing issues

24The maximum penalty for trafficking a drug on one occasion is 15 years' imprisonment and for trafficking in a commercial quantity, it is 25 years. For dealing with property reasonably suspected as being proceeds of crime, possessing a prohibited weapon, and failing to comply with a direction under s465AA of the Crimes Act (Vic) the maximum penalty is two years on each charge.

25Charge 3, trafficking a commercial quantity, is a category 2 offence under the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic). This means that I must impose a custodial sentence on this charge unless certain exceptions apply. It was not suggested in any way that any such an exception does apply.

26The objective gravity of your trafficking is high. It was repeated. The quantity involved in Charge 3 is well over the threshold set for a commercial quantity and over 50 percent of the threshold for a large commercial quantity. Your role in the drug’s safe storage was significant, as was your possession of it for sale involving other offenders who relied on you for that storage.

27The amount of money found in your safe with the drugs, whilst not very high, was substantial. Your moral culpability for your offending was not said to be reduced by any feature of the case or your personal circumstances. You offended in the context, albeit somewhat dated, of similar serious offending on more than one occasion.

28Your counsel submitted that the seriousness of your offending was in the mid-range and not low range. The prosecutor agreed. I accept this assessment.

29An important feature of sentencing those who engage in trafficking dangerous drugs is the deterrence of others and providing strong denunciation and punishment of such behaviour. I propose to achieve these sentencing principles by the imposition of a substantial term of imprisonment.

30Your relevant criminal history and the lack of any material demonstrating contrition or progress in rehabilitation to date result in the court giving weight to the real need to deter you from any such repeat offending and to motivate you to change your ways.  I find your prospects to be guarded.

31In calculating your sentence, I have had regard to the totality of your offending over the three different time periods and will make orders for concurrency so that your total effective sentence remains proportionate to what you have actually done.

32Your counsel submitted that due to a restraining order placed over your property, that you stand to lose your interest in your matrimonial home and your motor vehicle, under the forfeiture provisions of the Confiscation Act 1997 (Vic). However, as your counsel rightly conceded in my view, I am unable to evaluate your loss or future loss in this respect and so I cannot reduce your sentence on any such basis. I do accept, however, that you will serve your time in custody knowing that your new home is at risk and that your actions have had this impact on your wife and your future together.

33You have been in custody now since 22 November 2022. While the COVID‑19 pandemic has not rendered your time in custody overly burdensome in that time, I have had some regard to the fact that that and other restrictions during that time are ever present. I note that you have in recent months been able to receive in person visits from your family members and that they have occurred. I will moderate your sentence to some degree due to the effects of COVID.[1]

[1] Brown (aka Davis) v The Queen [2020] VSCA 60, [48].

34Both your counsel and the prosecutor submitted that the only appropriate sentence in your case was of a term of imprisonment that attracts a non‑parole period and I agree.  

35I sentence you as follows:

(a)   On Charge 1 trafficking methylamphetamine – 15 months' imprisonment;

(b)   On Charge 2 trafficking methylamphetamine – 15 months' imprisonment;

(c)   On Charge 3, trafficking a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine – 3 years and 7 months;

(d)   On summary Charge 9, possessing money reasonably suspected to be proceeds of crime – 6 months;

(e)   On summary Charge 10, possessing a prohibited weapon – 2 months;

(f)    On summary Charge 11, possessing a prohibited weapon – 2 months;

(g)   On summary Charge 12, refusing to assist police – 4 months.

36

Six months of the sentence on Charge 1 and four months of the sentence on Charge 2 are to be served cumulatively upon each other and the sentence on Charge 3. The total effective sentence is 4 years and

5 months.

37I fix a non-parole period of 2 years and 11 months.

38I declare that you have served 274 days and direct that this be reckoned as a period already served under this sentence.

39In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), but for your plea of guilty I would have imposed 6 years and fixed a non-parole period of 4 years.

Ancillary orders

40I make the unopposed orders for forfeiture and disposable, as sought. 

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