Director of Public Prosecutions v Angus

[2016] VCC 354

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA Revised
(Not) Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT GEELONG
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 15-01793

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JARROD KEITH ANGUS

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT
WHERE HELD:	Geelong
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	11 February 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Angus
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 354

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. O'Doherty
For the Offender	Mr A.J. Sim

HIS HONOUR:

1Jarrod Keith Angus, you can stay seated for the time being.  You have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with robbery, making threats to kill and possess firearm whilst a prohibited person.

2The offences arose from events that occurred on the 5th and 6 March 2015. 

3You have admitted prior court appearances and convictions. 

4The maximum term of imprisonment for the offence of robbery is 15 years and for each of the offences of making threats to kill and being a prohibited person carrying a firearm is ten years imprisonment. 

5The prosecution tendered and relied upon an agreed summary of prosecution opening which is Exhibit A.  That was read to the court this morning.  I am not going to repeat it again. 

6It is clear that the incidents on the 5th and 6 March arose as a result of a disagreement that you had with an acquaintance over some property and that you used the opportunity of his attending premises to carry out the robbery upon him and to threaten him over a period of 30 to 40 minutes whilst in possession of and pointing, or waving, a firearm and making threats to kill him in circumstances which led him to believe that you were likely to or may carry those threats out.  You were a prohibited person at the time that you were in possession of that firearm. 

7The offending is serious.  Your criminal record includes offences of violence in particular.  As recently as 19 January 2015 you were sentenced for making a threat to kill, albeit that the circumstances were somewhat different, arising from, I am told, a dispute with your partner.

8You have other offences involving violence, assault with a weapon and using an unregistered Category A longarm, all of which of course, are relevant prior convictions. 

9The prosecution also relied upon Victim Impact Statements from your primary victim and Jessica Bartlett, his girlfriend, which shows that the effect of your offending conduct upon him was substantial and has had a lasting, and not surprisingly, ongoing effect. 

10Turning to matters personal to you, your counsel provided me with an outline of submissions which is Exhibit 1.  A report from a psychologist, Mr Allan Woodward dated 7 June 2013 along with a letter from Dr Gillian Cameron,  References, at least, letters from your mother indicating that you have a home to go to.  Various certificates showing that you have made good use of the time that you have spent in custody since your arrest on these matters, and finally, a poem from you which refers to the affect that ice has had upon you and those close to you. 

11The history of your education shows that you had learning difficulties.  That is reflected in your patchy employment history which involves you having a very large number of jobs over a short period of time, and more recently, it seems, being out of work. 

12The context in which the offending occurred, seems to me, to have arisen from a spiralling in your use of the drug ice, and the break-up of your relationship with your partner, the mother of your children. 

13Your criminal record is a bad one and I have already referred to the offences involving violence, or threats of violence, that are set out in the record.  It is plain that you are going to have to get a grip on your life if you are going to play any meaningful part as a father in the future and to resurrect any sort of worthwhile contribution that you could make to the community.

14Your prospects of rehabilitation have been assessed – at least prospects of staying out of trouble – as not good, essentially, and you are at high risk of re-offending.  That, of course, is based on a number of factors including your criminal record, and unless you can address satisfactorily the drug problem, the abuse of alcohol and drugs that has characterised your life over the last few years, it seems to me that your prospects of rehabilitation are poor.

15The community is best protected from you by endeavouring to rehabilitate you.  You have had opportunities in the past, through court orders, to address your rehabilitation.  You have not taken them to date or at least not taken them adequately.  However, you have been assessed as suitable for a community correction order. 

16The prosecution submission is that a sentence of imprisonment of a kind which would permit me to make an order, including a community correction order, is outside the range of available sentences. 

17The Court of Appeal in relatively recent times, has handed down a decision which is normally referred to by reference to one of the participants, Boulton, which has changed the landscape in terms of the availability of community correction orders in appropriate circumstances. 

18I am very conscious of the need to impose a sentence that punishes you adequately, that denounces your conduct adequately and offers a measure of protection to the general public. 

19So far as Charge 2 is concerned, I am required to sentence you as a serious violent offender.  Ordinarily, that would require me to impose a sentence that was cumulative upon sentences imposed for the other offences on the indictment.

20The prosecution has not sought a disproportionate sentence and for that reason I am conscious of the need to apply the totality principle, that is, to impose a sentence that is not crushing upon you and which enables a degree of cumulation, but also a degree of concurrency as between the sentences.

21It is conceded that a term of imprisonment is required and is inevitable having regard to the serious nature of the offending conduct.  The question that I have to determine is whether, the need to impose a sentence that deters you adequately and sends a sufficient message out to the community that offending of this kind is not be tolerated, can be accommodated within the available sentences that enable me to impose a community correction order.

22You have a place to go to once you are released from custody.  There is, as I understand it, an intervention order out against you protecting your former partner.  I can see from the material before me that you are intent on addressing your anger management and your capacity to play a role as a parent. 

23It seems to me, that in Marngoneet where you are at the present time, you will also have the capacity to address your drug problems and alcohol problems, and it seems to me, that you are motivated at the present time to take advantage of the programs that Marngoneet offers. 

24The current sentencing regime would enable me to impose a term of imprisonment without ordering a non-parole period up to two years imprisonment. 

25The Court of Appeal has recognised that a community correction order is itself punitive and that it can be tailored to incorporate punitive elements that need to be regarded as such in an overall sentencing exercise. 

26It seems to me in this case, that despite the submission of the prosecution, that a term of imprisonment coupled with a suitably drawn community correction order is available to me. 

27I have in mind – and I will tell you this because you have to consent to a community correction order otherwise I cannot impose one – that I have in mind to impose a total effective sentence of imprisonment of 22 months and that will be without any non-parole period, so you will have to do the full 22 months. 

28I will give you credit for the 325 days that you have already spent in custody so you will have to do the balance of that period up to 22 months. 

29Coupled with that I would impose a community correction order for a period of two years and you would be required to perform 250 hours of unpaid community work but I would order that 150 of those hours could be offset against an equivalent number of satisfactory completed hours of rehabilitative programs. 

30I would order that you would be supervised for that two year period.  That you are assessed for and participate in, if you are found suitable, treatment and rehabilitation programs to address drug abuse, alcohol abuse, your mental health issues and programs to reduce the risk of re-offending. 

31You are well aware, I have no doubt, that those sorts of orders are not particularly easy to comply with.  You have to turn up, when you are required to, for appointments and you have to complete the number of hours of unpaid community work that you are required to.  You have to obey directions and you have to stay out of trouble, because if you fail to comply with the terms of the order, then potentially you are up for a breach and that could be up to three months imprisonment just for the breach, plus if you breach by committing a further offence punishable by imprisonment during that two year period, you would be up for sentence for that matter and also you would be up for re-sentence on these matters. 

32Any breach would at least involve you in being up for re-sentence on these matters and up to three months imprisonment for the breach alone. 

33You are well aware of all those conditions, are you not?  Yes.  Would you be willing to consent to a community correction order in those terms?

34OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

35HIS HONOUR:  All right, well in those circumstances, I am ready to impose sentence upon you.  Would you please stand.

36On Charge 1 of robbery, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 18 months.

37On Charge 2 of making threats to kill, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 15 months.

38On Charge 3 of possessing a firearm whilst a prohibited person, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 12 months. 

39I sentenced you as a serious and violent offender on Charge 2.  The sentence on Charge 1 is the base sentence and I order that four months of the sentence imposed on Charge 2 be served cumulatively upon the sentence of 18 months on Charge 1, making a total effective sentence of 22 months. 

40I declare pre-sentence detention of 325 days as time to be reckoned as served on the sentence that I have imposed and to be deducted administratively from the time you will actually have to serve.  I order that that fact be noted in the records of the court. 

41In addition I sentence you to, or make a community correction order, which will commence at the conclusion of your term of imprisonment and will contain the following conditions.  That you complete 250 hours of unpaid community work, 150 of those hours may be offset against satisfactorily completed hours of treatment and rehabilitation. 

42You will be subject to the supervision of the Department of Corrections for the period of two years during which the order will be enforced and you will be required to be assessed for, and if found suitable, to participate in rehabilitation treatment for drug abuse, alcohol abuse, mental health issues and programs to address, or reduce the risk, of re-offending.

43In addition I make the order under s.464ZF of the Crimes Act for the provision of a forensic sample.  That will mean that you will be approached during the period of your sentence to provide a scraping from the inside of your mouth.  If you do that, then that is the end of the matter.  If you fail or refuse to do that, when requested to do so by an authorised officer, the officer will be authorised to take blood and may use reasonable force to obtain that sample.  I am quite sure you will not put them to that trouble.

44But for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of four years in prison with a non-parole period of two years and eight months. 

45Take a seat please, the orders will be drawn up.  Mr O'Doherty, are there any other orders?

46MR O'DOHERTY:  No, Your Honour.

47(Order signed by His Honour.)

48HIS HONOUR: I have signed the s.464ZF order, Mr O'Doherty.

49MR O'DOHERTY:  Thank you, Your Honour.

50HIS HONOUR:  I think I will just leave the Bench whilst those orders are being drawn up and then they can be signed.

51MR O'DOHERTY:  Thank you.

52(Short adjournment.)

53HIS HONOUR:  Yes, the order is ready for signature.  Mr Sims, would you mind accompanying my associate to your client to ‑ ‑ ‑

54MR SIMS:  Thank you, Your Honour.

55HIS HONOUR:  ‑ ‑ ‑ ensure he knows what he is signing?

56MR SIMS:  I will thank you.

57(Orders signed and acknowledged.)

58HIS HONOUR:  All right, that order is now signed and is in place. 

59MR SIMS:  As Your Honour pleases.

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