Director of Public Prosecutions v Arvidson
[2015] VCC 453
•16 April 2015
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-15-00109
Indictment No. E13229543
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JEREMY ALEXANDER ARVIDSON |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMITH | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 5 March 2015 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 16 April 2015 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | Director of Public Prosecutions v Arvidson | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2015] VCC 453 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Sentence – theft (3 charges) – armed robbery (2 charges) – possessing a firearm whilst prohibited (one charge) – burglary (one charge) – false imprisonment (one charge) – driving whilst disqualified (summary charge) – stating false name to police (summary charge)
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991; Crimes Act 1958
Cases Cited:R v Verdins & Ors (2007) 16 VR 269; DPP v Edwards [2012] VSCA 293
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms D Hogan (Plea) Ms C Cameron (Sentence) | Solicitor for Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr A Pyne (Plea) Mr D Gibson (Sentence) | Victoria Legal Aid |
HIS HONOUR:
Jeremy Arvidson: You have pleaded guilty to three charges of theft, two charges of armed robbery, one charge of possessing a firearm whilst a prohibited person, one charge of burglary and one charge of false imprisonment.
In addition, you pleaded guilty to two summary charges – driving whilst disqualified and stating a false name to police.
The circumstances of your offending are as follows.
On 12 August 2014, in the early hours of the morning, you, in company with another person, drove a stolen motor vehicle to a Coles Express service station in Narre Warren North. The unknown person filled the car with $40 worth of petrol. You were a passenger in the car whilst he drove away without paying for that petrol. Those matters constitute a charge of theft (Charge 1).
You and the other person then drove to business premises in Seaford where you observed a Holden utility parked. You armed yourself with a pen pistol and loaded a single .22-calibre bullet into it. You and the other person walked into the office area of the premises and confronted an employee of that business. You had both attempted to disguise yourselves by concealing the lower portion of your faces. You pointed the pen pistol at the employee and demanded that he hand over the keys to the utility that you had seen. You threatened to shoot him. You located the keys to the utility and you drove it away from the premises. These matters constitute a charge of armed robbery (Charge 2) and possessing a firearm whilst a prohibited person (Charge 3).
At that time, you were not licensed to drive a motor vehicle. You had been disqualified from holding such a licence in July 2014 for six months. Those matters constitute the summary charge of driving whilst disqualified.
At some stage between 7 pm on 12 August and 11.30 am on 13 August 2014, you stole a set of Queensland registered numberplates from a Honda sedan parked at a block of units in Keysborough. You fixed those stolen numberplates onto the utility that you had previously stolen. These matters constitute the charge of theft of those licence plates (Charge 4).
On 13 August 2014, at about 2 am, you attended at a hotel in Rowville with two other males. You entered a part of the hotel that was closed off, from where you stole a set of security keys. Those matters constitute the charges of burglary (Charge 5) and theft of those keys (Charge 6).
On 28 September 2014, at the car park of a Woolworths store in Berwick, you approached a Woolworths employee who was engaged in collecting supermarket trollies. You produced a pair of scissors and pushed them into his neck and demanded his wallet. You threatened to kill him. The employee was understandably scared and complied, handing you his wallet. You then took the employee’s mobile telephone from his hand. These matters constitute the charge of armed robbery (Charge 7).
You demanded that the Woolworths employee provide his PIN code. He provided you with an incorrect one. You then placed one arm around his neck and held the scissors in your hand, close to his stomach. You took him to an ATM machine approximately 150 metres away. On arrival at that ATM machine, the employee managed to push you away and run to a nearby business to obtain help. Those matters constitute the charge of false imprisonment (Charge 8).
Shortly after on that day, you were arrested by police in Berwick. In your possession at that time were two pairs of scissor and the Woolworths employee’s mobile telephone and wallet containing his credit card. You told police that your name was Jeremy Oates. That behaviour constituted the summary charge of stating a false name to police.
Background
You are currently 21 years old. Your counsel described you as having had a deprived and very difficult upbringing. Reports from Dr Gunvant Patel (consultant forensic psychiatrist) dated 24 March 2014 and Ms Carla Lechner (consultant psychologist) dated 26 February 2015 were both tendered on your behalf. Dr Patel’s report contains many details of your upbringing.
You were born in Box Hill but lived in various locations in Melbourne, Queensland and Shepparton. Your father was murdered soon after your birth and you have had no contact with the paternal side of your family. Your mother had problems with drugs and was apparently unable to care for you. You were raised, in large part, by your maternal grandmother until the age of about 12 or 13 when you were placed into residential care.
You attended numerous primary schools. You commenced secondary school but, after six weeks of year 7, ceased attending because you had decided that you did not want to go to school any more.
From about the age of 14, you have advised Dr Patel and Ms Lechner that you were regularly sexually abused by an older boy in a residential placement. You have been diagnosed by Dr Patel and Ms Lechner with post-traumatic stress disorder which is said to be likely to have been caused by that abuse.
It seems that from the age of about 14, you became a daily user of alcohol. You also used marijuana for a short period from about that time.
You first used methylamphetamine (or ice) at the age of 13 and used it regularly from the age of 14 or 15. Between the ages of 16 and 18, you told Dr Patel that you were using ice intravenously on a daily basis, up to a gram a day. From the age of 18 to 20, you changed to smoking daily. You told Dr Patel that the ice took away your bad thoughts.
When aged 18, you used heroin intravenously for six or seven months but you appear to have ceased that drug successfully.
You advised Dr Patel that you are of Koori background, identifying your father as Koori and your mother as part Koori.
You have got four half-brothers and half-sisters with whom you have no contact.
You lost contact with your mother until late last year, when you told
Ms Lechner that you had reconnected with her. She resides in Adelaide and it would appear that your contact is very limited.
You have a child now aged five or six. You have had some but relatively little contact with him.
Prior convictions
You have a list of prior convictions, dating back to 2006, which, given your age, is little short of breathtaking.
Your convictions include:
· Some 14 convictions for burglary;
· Three convictions for making a threat to kill;
· Two convictions of recklessly causing injury;
· Two convictions of recklessly engaging in conduct that places another person in danger of serious injury;
· One conviction of assault with a weapon;
· Four convictions of possessing a controlled weapon;
· Twenty-five convictions for driving whilst disqualified, or whilst unlicensed;
· Numerous convictions for wilfully damaging property;
· Numerous convictions of theft of a motor vehicle;
· Numerous convictions for sundry driving offences; and
· Numerous convictions for offences relating to dishonesty.
You have been in and out of one court or another on many occasions. You have, on any view, been given a number of opportunities by way of sentences not involving incarceration in prison. You have, in the past, been placed on probation; released on a good behaviour bond; released on a youth supervision order with conditions that you participate in counselling and conditions that you participate in community service programs; sentenced to youth supervision orders, where you were specifically directed to accept referral to and engage with drug and alcohol counselling as directed; sentenced to wholly suspended terms of imprisonment, with conditions that you undergo assessment and treatment for drug abuse or dependency as directed, and for alcohol abuse; you have been sentenced to community correction orders with various conditions.
In February 2014, you were convicted of offences of possession of drugs of dependence, possession of a controlled weapon and going equipped to steal or cheat. You were sentenced to a community correction order of 18 months with a number of conditions involving treatment and rehabilitation in relation to drugs, alcohol and your offending behaviour. You breached that community correction order almost immediately, and on 17 April 2014, you were sentenced to a further community correction order for 18 months, also involving similar conditions in relation to attempted rehabilitation. You breached that community correction order by driving a motor vehicle dangerously or negligently whilst being pursued by police.
On 15 January 2015, you were sentenced for breach of that community correction order. Amongst others, the offences dealt with on that date were unlicensed driving, reckless conduct, dangerous driving, possessing LSD, possession of methamphetamine, failing to answer bail, theft, going equipped to steal and cheat, two counts of burglary and one count of theft of a motor vehicle. Those offences are not prior convictions as such. Nevertheless, they are relevant to my consideration of your prospects for rehabilitation. All of them were committed during the period from 30 June 2014 and 7 September 2014 and constituted, as I said, a breach of the community correction order imposed the previous April. In January 2015, you were sentenced to imprisonment for 18 months with a minimum non-parole term of six months. On that sentence, you are eligible for parole in late October 2015. Whether you would have been granted parole at that time, I cannot say. That would always be a matter solely for the parole board to determine.
Mitigating factors
Your counsel has submitted and I accept that there are a number of factors going to mitigation of your sentence.
I accept that you have had a relatively deprived and difficult upbringing involving little or no parental guidance. You told Dr Patel that your grandmother was a loving carer and that, whilst residing with her, you were appropriately provided for materially. It would seem that, whatever stability you enjoyed whilst residing with her, it finished at the age of about 12 or 13 when you were placed in foster care or residential placements for the next five years. It appears that your grandmother was no longer able to control and care for you. On any view, your upbringing has lacked stability.
I accept that you were exposed to trauma at the age of about 14 years when sexually abused by an older resident of one of the homes in which you were placed. Dr Patel and Ms Lechner are both of the opinion that you suffer a degree of post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence of that abuse and that it has continued until this time.
I accept that you were exposed from a relatively early age to alcohol and drug abuse. Ms Lechner has diagnosed that you suffer from a stimulant use disorder which, as I understand it, relates directly to your persistent use of ice and other substances.
It is clear that you have had a short and inadequate period of schooling. Ms Lechner has expressed the view that you suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a child and that this undermined your education.
You did plead guilty to these offences at the earliest opportunity and your sentence will be discounted as a consequence of that early plea. Your plea does have a utilitarian benefit, in that the time and cost of a trial or trials in respect of these offences has been avoided and persons who would otherwise have had to give evidence will no longer be required to do so. Your counsel submitted that this, together with the fact that you made extensive admissions to police when interviewed, is indicative that you have demonstrated genuine remorse in respect of your offences. I note, however, your further offending after being charged with these offences. Such conduct does not, in my opinion, confirm genuine remorse for the offences for which you are presently before this court.
In 2014, Dr Patel diagnosed you as suffering from moderate depression. Your treatment in respect of that condition appears to have been minimal and often non-existent.
Your counsel advised me that, to date, you have received virtually no counselling or treatment in respect of your drug or alcohol problems. However, I note that this is not entirely or perhaps at all the fault of the corrections system. On a number of occasions, you have been released on orders conditional on attending for such treatment and counselling and you have not complied with those orders. The reality is that Corrections Victoria are not able to force you to participate in such treatment. You have to be a willing participant. Corrections Victoria are unlikely ever to have the resources to physically search for, locate you and take you to treatment sessions when they might be scheduled.
Your counsel has advised me that you have been in custody since
28 September 2014, a period of some six-and-a-half months. Prior to that, you had been in custody in an adult jail on two other occasions – for a period of 40 days from 17 April 2014 and earlier for a period of approximately two months from 17 September 2013. It was submitted on your behalf that your current period of incarceration in an adult jail for a longer period has had a salutary effect on you and also provided you with an extended period without being tempted to use drugs. I should say on that note that I am aware that it is said that drugs are often freely available in gaols. They ought not be, but from time to time at least, it appears that they are. Nevertheless, I accept that it is probably more difficult for you to lay your hands on drugs in gaol than it is outside. I hope that is true in any event.
I accept that the principles in R v Verdins & Ors (2007) 16 VR 269 have some application here. It seems likely that your depression and
post-traumatic stress disorder conditions were in play at the time of your offending in relation to these offences.
I was advised by your counsel that you are currently in some form of protective custody and that this relates to the fact that, if you were not protected, you would be at large in a prison community with persons who were associated with the murder of your father. In view of the fact that your father was murdered some twenty years ago when you were virtually a baby, I have got to say that that seems unlikely to me, and without further material in support of it, I shall not take it into account in sentencing you.
Prosecution View
Counsel for the prosecution has submitted that your offences were serious and your counsel has conceded that that was so. Your victims, the subject of the two armed robberies, would justifiably have been terrified and in fear of serious injury and possibly worse. You acknowledged this when you were interviewed by police. The fact that the firearm used by you in the earlier of the two armed robberies was loaded is a further aggravating factor.
Taking all the material before me into account, I am of the opinion that your prospects for rehabilitation are, at best, uncertain. Your inability to resist drugs when released from custody has been consistent. The prospects of you being able to resist those temptations in the future are, at least on one view, slim. You have no family support to speak of, no likely employment prospects at present and no obvious place of residence.
In March 2014, Dr Patel was of the view that on your release from custody, it would be important for you to be engaged with individual psychological counselling to address your post-traumatic stress disorder. In addition, he considered you would require support through drug and alcohol counselling. Likewise, more recently, Ms Lechner expressed the view that ideally, on release from prison, you would go to a residential rehabilitation program that adopted a multi-disciplinary approach to intervention and that that might break your current cycle of revolving back into prison shortly after release. She considered that, in the absence of such intervention, you would be at significant risk of becoming institutionalised.
The prosecutor drew my attention to the previous two community correction orders to which you were sentenced in January 2014 and in April of that year. Both of these were breached, as was an earlier community correction order imposed in May 2012.
I accept that your previous experience with community correction orders, and youth detention orders for that matter, has involved virtually no compliance whatsoever. In addition to breaching CCOs, you have breached four youth supervision orders, one youth attendance order and, further, you have contravened three family violence intervention orders.
These breaches and contraventions, together with your regular and consistent pattern of offending, indicate that you either have little or no respect for the law or are simply a person who is unable to comply with the law for all but the briefest periods.
Sentence
Section 5 of the Sentencing Act provides for purposes for which sentences may be imposed by this court and others. These include the need to punish you for your offences in a manner that is just in all of the circumstances; to deter you and others from committing similar offences in the future; to manifest the court’s denunciation of your offending conduct; and to protect the community from you.
However, the list of purposes also includes the establishment of conditions within which it is considered that your rehabilitation may be facilitated. For reasons previously expressed, there are doubts as to your prospects for rehabilitation. However, you are still relatively young and, with some hope of developing further maturity as you age, I should not discard those prospects for rehabilitation, no matter how slim they may appear to be.
Sub-section 4 of s.5 of that Act provides that I should not impose a sentence on you involving confinement unless I consider that the purposes for which you are to be sentenced cannot be achieved by a sentence that does not involve confinement.
I have come to the conclusion that the sentence in respect of these offences must involve a period of imprisonment to adequately reflect the denunciation of the court of your conduct and to take account of your long and unfortunate list of prior convictions.
However, to merely impose a gaol sentence which would result in you leaving prison at the end of that term (whether on parole or not) is likely to see you revert back to your prior lifestyle and likely re-offending unless some supervision and treatment for your drug and alcohol problems can be assured.
In his report of 24 March 2014, Dr Patel noted your need for individual psychological treatment would be unlikely to be met in a prison environment.
In Ms Lechner's report, she noted your detoxification when in custody and your typical relapses when released back into the community. She considered that you would benefit from treatment at a residential rehabilitation facility upon your release in order to address the psychological issues underlying your addictions.
I see no reason why, on your release from prison, you would not be able to receive such individual residential treatment, especially so if it was the type referred to in conditions attached to a community correction order.
I am in receipt of a report from Corrections Victoria, dated today, which indicates that you are assessed as being at a high risk of re-offending and unsuitable for a community corrections order because of your history of non-compliance with community-based sentences. I have had regard to those recommendations, the information and other matters set out in that report.
Nevertheless, I am not bound by such a report. It is my view that a determined attempt should be made by the court and by you to enable you to receive supervised and, if necessary, residential treatment for your drug and alcohol problems. Such treatment is unlikely to be received if you are merely sentenced to prison without significant organized assistance in relation to those problems upon your release. Accordingly, I have concluded that your best prospects for rehabilitation is for you to serve a further term of imprisonment in relation to these offences and then, on your release, to be sentenced to a community correction order to commence immediately upon your release from prison.
The principal reasons for adopting this course is your relatively young age, the fact that, for a variety of reasons, you have not yet received any long term professional treatment for your drug problems, and your apparent enthusiasm to have another chance of receiving such treatment.
You will understand that such treatment will have little or no effect unless you apply yourself seriously to it.
I note your statements to Dr Patel in the past and to the Corrections Victoria assessor that you saw today that previous arrangements made pursuant to community corrections orders concerned with treatments did not suit you. For example, it is reported that you did not like having too many appointments in the one week and that you were sometimes late for appointments because of transport difficulties and the like.
Such matters are not valid excuses. They do not come close to it. If you are serious about turning the corner and becoming part of this community, you will find a way of submitting to treatment, of getting to appointments on time, regardless of how many may be arranged in the one week, regardless of how inconvenient you may find that. It very much comes down to you and whether you really want to assume a normal place in the community. In that regard, I wish you every success.
I propose to sentence you as follows, but I will put these at present as proposal. It is lengthy. Remain seated, Mr Arvidson. This is the proposal and I will just talk to the prosecutor and to counsel before I make those final orders.
The proposal is this, that you be sentenced as follows:
(a) In respect of Charge 2 (that is, the armed robbery at Seaford), you are sentenced to prison for a term of 12 months. This will be the base sentence;
(b) In respect of Charge 1 (that is, the theft of petrol), you are sentenced to prison for a term of one month to be served concurrently with the term imposed on Charge 2;
(c) In respect of Charge 3 (that is, the possession of the pen pistol), you sentenced to prison for a term of six months, three months of which is to be served concurrently with the term imposed on Charge 2;
(d) In respect of Charge 4 (that is, the theft of licence plates), you are sentenced to prison for a term of three months, one month of which to be served concurrently with term imposed on Charge 2;
(e) In respect of Charge 5 (that is, the burglary at the Stamford Hotel), you are sentenced to prison for a term of three months, two months of which is to be served concurrently with the term imposed on Charge 2;
(f) In respect of Charge 6 (that is, the theft of the hotel security keys), you are sentenced to prison for a term of three months, to be served concurrently with the term imposed on Charge 2;
(g) In respect of Charges 7 and 8 (that is, the armed robbery at the Woolworths car park in Berwick and the unlawful imprisonment of Mr Singh), you are, on an aggregate basis, sentenced (should you consent to such an order) to a two-year community correction order, the terms of which I shall refer to shortly;
(h) In respect of the summary charge of driving whilst disqualified, you are sentenced to a prison term of three months, to be served concurrently with the term imposed on Charge 2;
(i) In respect of the summary charge of stating a false name to police, you are sentenced to prison for one month, to be served concurrently with the term imposed on Charge 2.
It would follow arithmetically that the total effective sentence would be one of 18 months, commencing today. It follows further that there will be a substantial overlap between this sentence and the sentence that you are currently serving.
Subject to your consent to serving a community correction order, I propose to make such order for a period of 24 months commencing on the day of release from prison.
That order will have the mandatory conditions set out in s.45(1) of the Sentencing Act – and they are as follows:
(a)that you must not commit, whether in or outside Victoria, during the two-year period of the order, an offence punishable by imprisonment;
(b)that you comply with any obligations and requirements provided by regulations;
(c)that you must report to and receive visits from the Secretary (that is, the Secretary to the Department of Justice) as directed during the period of the order;
(d)that you must report to the Community Corrections Centre specified in the order (namely, 46 Walker Street, Dandenong) on the day of your release from prison;
(e)that you must notify the Secretary of any change of address or employment within two clear workings days after that change;
(f)that you must not leave Victoria except with the permission of the Secretary. I should say in relation to that that if you go to Albury, that is outside Victoria, and likewise;
(g)that you must comply with any direction given by the Secretary that is necessary for him or her to ensure that you comply with this order.
In addition to those mandatory conditions as set out in the statute, there will be additional conditions as follows:
(a)you must perform unpaid community work of 200 hours during the course of the 24 months of this order; that is, from the time of your release from prison;
(b)you are to be monitored by a judge of this court (initially by me) at intervals following your release from prison, such intervals to be determined by the court from time to time. I initially direct that you appear before this court at 10.30 am on Friday 16 December 2016 for that purpose. That, as I calculate it, will be a couple of months after your release from prison and you will receive some further notice of that because that is a long way into the future and you will probably have difficulty remembering the date and the time, but it will be part of the orders made today, that you are directed to appear before this court - not necessarily this courtroom. You go downstairs and you look for your name on the screen and it will show you what court to go to. I will expect you to be able to tell me on that date what is the situation, what has occurred in the two months or so since your release, what progress is being made. I will then fix the next time for attendance at court for that purpose, and that might depend on your work, your job, et cetera. If on the date that I have listed here, Friday 16 December 2016, you have a job, if attending court might cost you your job, then I would expect you to contact the court, explain the position and we will try and find a time and a date that suits you and does not put any employment in jeopardy. Do you understand? But if you just ignore the situation and do not turn up, there is a breach in itself.
(c) further, a condition will be that you must undergo treatment directed by the Secretary with regard to:
(i)assessment and treatment (including testing) for alcohol abuse or dependency;
(ii)assessment and treatment (including testing) for drug use, abuse or dependency;
(iii)any assessment and treatment (including testing) at a residential facility for –
(i)withdrawal from and rehabilitation for alcohol abuse and dependency; or
(ii)withdrawal from or rehabilitation for drug use or dependency;
(d) a further condition will be that any mental health assessment and treatment that may include psychological, neuropsychological, psychiatric or other treatment in a hospital or residential facility;
(e) finally, you must attend any program that addresses factors related to your offending behaviour as directed by the Secretary.
I can only make that community correction order, Mr Arvidson, if you consent to it. Do you consent?
OFFENDER: Yes.
HIS HONOUR: Thank you.
I note in passing that the Court of Appeal has previously stated that:
“A community correction order is not, and should not be viewed as, a mere slap of the wrist. It is a significant punishment, and is capable of having a substantial deterrent effect, both specific and general.”[1]
[1] DPP v Edwards [2012] VSCA 293 at para[242].
Pursuant to s.6AAA - perhaps I will just pause for the moment. Madam Prosecutor, do you see any legal issues with the proposed sentences?
MS CAMERON: Sorry, Your Honour, in relation to the charge of state false name, the maximum penalty for that is five penalty units.
HIS HONOUR: In that case, I will record a conviction without further penalty. Just let me go back to my notes.
In respect of the summary charge of stating a false name to police, you are convicted without further penalty. The penalty I had imposed in relation to that was one month's imprisonment which I had directed would be served concurrently with the penalty on Charge 2, so the total effective sentence will not be affected by that alteration.
MS CAMERON: Yes, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Was there anything else that comes to mind?
MS CAMERON: Just in relation to the commencement of the community corrections order, I note that in relation to the sentence he received on 30 January this year, that is set to expire at July 2016. So in relation to this sentence, it is possible when PSD is declared, if Your Honour is minded to declare the PSD, this sentence will expire before the expiration of - - -
HIS HONOUR: PSD being?
MS CAMERON: One-hundred and twenty-four days pre-sentence detention.
HIS HONOUR: I see. I have directed, have I not, or I have proposed directing that the community corrections order commence - where have I said it. I am sure I said it was to commence on the day of Mr Arvidson's release from prison.
MS CAMERON: The day of release.
HIS HONOUR: If this term finishes on a certain date and he has got a little bit of the final term, which is uncertain, given the parole situation, then it is the day that he is released from prison.
MS CAMERON: All right.
HIS HONOUR: I would have thought that was clear, but perhaps what I have just said now makes it abundantly clear.
MS CAMERON: Yes, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: On the day he walks out of prison, the CCO will commence.
MS CAMERON: Thank you, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Thank you. Anything else that - yes, was there anything else? I just wanted to raise with you - well I will just continue, I think, for the moment, with other orders that I am required to make.
Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I declare that, had you not pleaded guilty to these charges, I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of three years with a minimum non-parole period of two years.
That then leads me to the pre-sentence detention issue. My memory may be playing tricks with me, but I do not recall that it was the state of play last time we were here that there was 124 days already served in relation to these offences. These offences occurred in July/August, was it? August/September of 2014. I appreciate he has been in custody since a date in September 2014, but I understood that was in relation to other charges. Is that not the case? Other offences?
MS CAMERON: No, Your Honour. The sentence he was given on
30 January this year, no PSD was declared, so from the time he was remanded on 28 September 2014 - - -
HIS HONOUR: That was in relation to these offences.
MS CAMERON: These offences, as well as those ones, but no PSD was declared for those.
HIS HONOUR: So when does the period of 124 days start, 28 December?
MS CAMERON: 28 September, sorry, Your Honour, 2014, until 30 January 2015.
HIS HONOUR: I see. That is 124 days.
MS CAMERON: Yes, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: I declare that 124 days of pre-sentence detention, not including today, to be reckoned as having been served under this sentence, and I direct that a declaration to that effect be recorded on the records of this court.
Are there any other ancillary orders sought? Have you got seizures?
MS CAMERON: Yes, Your Honour. Just a disposal order and a 464ZF order.
HIS HONOUR: I am amazed that samples have not been obtained from Mr Arvidson before.
MS CAMERON: Yes, Your Honour. I enquired with the DNA management unit at Victoria Police and he is not on the database.
HIS HONOUR: Mr Arvidson, pursuant to s.464ZF of the Crimes Act, you are required to undergo a forensic procedure for the taking of a scraping of your mouth and/or a blood sample in accordance with sub-division 30A of part 3 of the Crimes Act until a sample of sufficient standard is obtained for placement on the database. It is, as I understand it, a completely painless experience, but I am required to inform you that if you do not consent to the taking of such a sample, then the sample may be taken by police with the use of reasonable force on their part. So I will make that order. Just bear with me.
Further, the prosecutor seeks disposal orders in respect of the two pairs of scissors that were seized from you and the registration or licence plates. Mr Gibson, is there any issue as regard to those orders?
MR GIBSON: I hadn't sought instructions in relation, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Perhaps you might just seek instructions forthwith.
MR GIBSON: Your Honour, I think - does the disposal order include a pair of shoes? Beg your pardon. In which case, the order is consented to, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Thank you.
As regards to the - under the order under s.464ZF, that is a taking a sample from you, I am required to indicate why such an order is justified. The reason for making that order relates to the seriousness of the offences and that they warrant the order being made. I should also ask you, just as a matter for the record, Mr Arvidson, whether you consent to that sample being taken, mouth or blood sample.
OFFENDER: I've had it done already, so yeah.
HIS HONOUR: You do, thank you.
In relation to the community correction order, you are required to sign that document. I will sign it myself, I will give it to your counsel. Mr Gibson, do you seek a moment or two to discuss this with your client or is he - - -
MR GIBSON: I don't think the court needs to stand down. I could just briefly reiterate the conditions with him.
HIS HONOUR: I will remain on the Bench.
MR GIBSON: Yes. Thank you, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Yes. Anything else that I should turn my attention to?
MS CAMERON: No, Your Honour.
HIS HONOUR: Thank you. Mr Gibson?
MR GIBSON: No, Your Honour. Thank you.
HIS HONOUR: Thank you. Adjourn the court till 10.30 tomorrow morning, thank you.
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