Director of Public Prosecutions v Balcke, Robert
[2012] VCC 2056
•12 December 2012
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised (Not) Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT WARRNAMBOOL
CRIMINAL DIVISION
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ROBERT BALCKE |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE LECKIE | |
WHERE HELD: | Warrnambool | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 10 December 2012 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 12 December 2012 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Balcke, Robert | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2012] VCC 2056 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Armed Robbery
Catchwords: Plea
Sentence: 4 years imprisonment. Serve minimum of 2 years and 8 months before being eligible for parole.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr Lewis | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr Howard | HBH Legal |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Robert James Balcke, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery. The maximum penalty for this offence is 25 years' imprisonment. The circumstances of your offending are set out in the agreed prosecution opening which became Exhibit A and which was read to the court.
2 Briefly stated, they are as follows. At about 1.45 pm on 31 January of this year you rode your motorbike to a pizza shop in Percy Street, Portland. Your motorbike had no rear tyre and the rim was consequently bare. You then entered the pizza shop wearing a motorbike helmet and goggles. You approached the victim, Lachlan Holden, produced a knife, held it up towards the victim and said "Give me all your money or I'll kill you." The victim said "Are you serious?" and you responded "Yes, I'm fucking serious."
3 The victim then removed cash from the till and handed it over to you. You then said "I know you've got a safe behind the bench. I want all that money too." The victim got some money from the safe and handed it across. The total amount of cash handed over to you at that time was $400. You put the money in your pants while still holding the knife, and as you left you said to the victim "If you follow me outside I'll slit your throat." You then departed, dropping some of the money in a bag as you left. The amount you got away with was $175.
4 The incident was captured by cameras inside the shop and also a camera outside on a bank. A number of witnesses observed your escape on the motorbike, and the marks left on the road by the rim of your motorbike without a tyre left clearly visible marks which the police were able to follow to an address, where they found items you had worn during the offence, together with the knife.
5 The occupants of the house told the police that you had been to the house earlier and had told them you were going to do the robbery, and they observed you riding away on the bike. In fact, they followed and observed you go into the shop and then come out and ride away. They also saw you discard the items that you had used during the robbery.
6 Shortly after, the police arrested you at a nearby address and then interviewed you at the Portland Police Station. You denied the allegations and suggested that your friends were setting you up.
7
This, of course, is a very serious offence. It involved the use of a large knife, threats to kill and a warning of slitting the victim's throat if he followed.
I accept that the offence was amateurish, in the light of how it was carried out, and your arrest was inevitable. However, this does not diminish to any great extent the seriousness of the offence and the trauma that was caused to the victim, both emotional and psychological, which was set out in his Victim Impact Statement, which became Exhibit C.
8 Your counsel submitted there were some mitigating factors and I take into account, as he urged me to, in your favour that you have pleaded guilty. This has saved the community the time and cost of a trial and, importantly, it has saved the victim in particular the ordeal of giving evidence. Through your counsel you also expressed your remorse for your actions and the fear that you engendered in the victim. In these circumstances I am prepared to accept that you do have some remorse for your actions.
9 Your personal history and circumstances are set out in a pre-sentence report which was dated 4 December 2009, which was prepared for some other matter. However, your counsel tendered that, it became Exhibit 1, and relied upon the contents of the report to detail your background.
10
As I understand it you are now 32 years of age, being 31 at the time of committing this offence. You were born and grew up in Frankston, being the eldest of six children. You also had a number of half-siblings. Your parents separated when you were three months old, and your mother then
re-partnered, and you regarded her new partner as your father until he was killed in a fire which, tragically, you witnesses as a young person.
11 At the age of 11 you became a ward of the state and remained so until the age of around 16. You then returned to live with your mother. In around 2009 the family moved to Portland, although I understand through your counsel that you were not living with your mother at the time of committing this offence. You had some difficulties in your school and did Years 8 and 9 at the Forest Hill Special School. On leaving school you gained a position with assistance Search Garden Force Disability Support Centre in Moorabbin, and you then completed 12 months of landscaping, mowing lawns and weeding. But since that time you have not had any form of employment.
12 You have a history of substance abuse and addiction to alcohol. According to the pre-sentence report you have had three admissions to hospital in 2005 with a diagnosis of drug-induced psychosis. There was also mention of a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but no medical reports have been tendered in support of any of this material.
13 You have admitted before me to prior convictions. There are, on my calculation, some 102 such convictions arising from 18 court appearances. That is between 1997 and 2010. Of particular significance to my task of sentencing you are your convictions for a threat to kill, robbery, a charge of burglary, a conviction for carrying a prohibited weapon and a conviction for assault with intent to rob. You have received many different sentencing dispositions, including adjournments, Community Corrections Orders, many of which you have breached. You also received periods of imprisonment. Many of your offences also involve driving offences, but overall it is a dismal and deplorable record that you have at the age of 32.
14 Through your counsel you have indicated that upon your release you wish to remain living in the country region and engage in rural work such as hay carting.
15 Your counsel also tendered a number of certificates, which are Exhibit 2, which evidenced your efforts to commence your rehabilitation whilst in custody by undertaking training courses. These have included hospitality and cleaning, drug counselling, conflict management and relapse prevention. These are encouraging signs, but one must be guarded about your chances of rehabilitation, which can at best be regarded as fair in light of your prior convictions in history.
16 However, as well as the matters personal to you which I have taken into account, and also your chances of rehabilitation, I am required by our Sentencing Act to take into account a series of other matters. Deterrence, both, in this case, general and specific deterrence, are both significant. I must also consider protection of members of the community from you and bear in mind the likelihood of you re-offending. The Sentencing Act also calls upon me to manifest the community's denunciation of such conduct and generally impose a just sentence.
17 The seriousness of your offending in my view calls for an immediate period of imprisonment. Your counsel did not argue otherwise, but urged me to consider a low minimum term. I have examined the material, and nothing in this material persuades me that a lower-than-normal period of parole is justified in this case.
18 Would you stand up, please?
19 The sentence of the court is that you are convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to four years' imprisonment. I direct that you serve a minimum term of two years and eight months before being eligible for parole. I declare that you have served 285 days' pre-sentence detention, and that be reckoned as having been served under the sentence hereby imposed, and direct that this declaration and its details be entered in the records of the court.
20 I state that but for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to a period of five years' imprisonment, with a minimum of 40 months. I have made orders in relation to disposal of items that were used in the course of the robbery, and also a compensation order for, I think it is $175, which orders were not objected to by you or queried by you. You may be seated.
21 Are there any matters arising out of the sentence, gentlemen?
22 MR LEWIS: No, Your Honour.
23 MR HOWARD: No, Your Honour.
24 HIS HONOUR: Yes, would you remove the prisoner please?
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