Director of Public Prosecutions v Becroft

[2014] VCC 1898

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

AT GEELONG
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JEREMY RICHARD BECROFT

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY
WHERE HELD:	Geelong
DATE OF HEARING:	27 October 2014
DATE OF SENTENCE:	28 October 2014
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Becroft
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2014] VCC 1898

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms A. Harrold	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Offender	Mr M.W. Brugman	Michael Brugman Solicitors

HIS HONOUR: 

1Jeremy Becroft, for just under two years or so, you have been in the grip of heroin and that scourge of a drug, ice.  You were living a chaotic life.  You were often homeless.  You had lost the support of your family.  Your desperate and, indeed, dire circumstances were such that you were admitted to the psychiatric ward at the Geelong Hospital in December of 2013.

2You were stabilised and then offered outpatient care and treatment.  Unfortunately, on your release, you quickly resumed heroin and ice use.  I will speak shortly about your own efforts to re-start drug rehabilitation in the months that followed.

3But a few days after being discharged from the Swanston Centre at the Geelong Hospital, you broke into a car parked in the driveway of a suburban house.  You stole a GPS device and a wallet and used the credit card that was in the wallet, twice, within minutes, to buy four slabs of beer.

4On 15 March 2014, your parents were away on holidays.  It seems you took the opportunity to break into their house, steal valuable goods, and your mother's car.  You pointed out that the property in the car were ultimately returned.

5In early April 2014, you came into the possession of a stolen pushbike.  You took it to a Cash Converters on 7 April and sold it for $20.  You have pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods.

6The most serious offences that you committed in this period were on 26 April 2014.  On the morning of that day you travelled to central Geelong from your boarding house, or crisis accommodation in Highton.  You tried to get food from a welfare organisation in Geelong.  By the early afternoon, or 1.20 to be precise, you were in such a desperate state that you went to the Geelong Police Station and there you told the policeman, who you knew, that you were not feeling well and you asked him to lock you up.

7You said you felt you were going to commit a crime.  The police officer told you if you are not feeling well, to go to the Geelong Hospital.  You did go to the hospital, where you asked to see mental health clinicians.

8The hospital commenced, it seems, to make arrangements for you to see a psychiatric nurse.  You also told the triage nurse that you were an IV drug user and you needed a packet of disposable syringes.  As per the practice based on harm minimisation, hospital staff gave you a packet of syringes.

9Rather than then wait at the hospital to see the mental health staff, you left after about 20 minutes.  You tried to get cigarettes from the nearby 7-Eleven store, but you had no money in your bank account.  You then left that shop.

10You saw a young woman walking by on the street.  You followed her and then stepped in front of her, brandishing a syringe, demanding money.  She was frightened and initially refused before asking how much you wanted.  You said $10, then changed that to 20.  The victim was extremely fearful and handed you $20.  You fled back to the 7-Eleven store and bought cigarettes.  You then went to central Geelong and bought a can of alcohol.

11You then saw, a little later, another young woman walking alone in a nearby street.  You followed her and as she got to her car, you threatened her with a syringe, demanding $50.  She, likewise, was immediately in great fear.

12A couple had observed your behaviour from across the road and did the right thing.  They called out to you and you panicked and ran.  The young woman was able to get over to the helpful couple and be comforted.

13That night you slept in Johnstone Park going back to the boarding house the next morning.  You were arrested in the boarding house the next day.  When interviewed you fully admitted your crimes of the armed robbery and the attempted armed robbery, explaining that you needed the money for drugs.  I note that the money you did get was used to get cigarettes and alcohol.  You do not put forward that any need that you had for drugs justified what you had done.

14Using a syringe to rob or attempt to rob vulnerable young women just going about their business on the streets of Geelong, is by any measure, serious offending.

15You caused great fear in the victims.  Further, you have added to the sense of fear people have that the streets of our city are not safe.  The use of a syringe is a concerning aspect of your behaviour.  Everyone is particularly fearful that a syringe used as a weapon could well leave the victim with lifelong dreadful infectious diseases.

16That said, your offending was far from the most serious example of armed robbery or attempted armed robbery.  You were plainly desperate, as evidenced by your attendance at the police station earlier in the afternoon.  Also your attendance at the hospital indicates you were in a poor mental state. 

17However, you used the situation to get the syringes and did not wait long at the hospital at all.  Drug addiction can never be an excuse for violent and frightening crimes.  However, I cannot ignore your dire  circumstances on the day, or your fragile mental health.

18You are now 37.  Your upbringing was in a loving home.  Your parents have, by and large, remained supportive, though they have been sorely tested.  Your offending in December 2013, March 2014 and April 2014, was when you were isolated from your parents.  Since you have been on remand they have re-connected and offer you ongoing support.  Their perseverance in all the circumstances is commendable.

19I have been assisted and impressed by the letter from your father and I note that he was in court yesterday and again today.

20Once you are back in the community, Mr Becroft, you should never let your parents down again.  Whether you do or not, of course, is entirely up to you. 

21Your time at school was difficult.  You had learning difficulties and required integration aids through primary and secondary school.  While this enabled you to get something out of your education, it caused you social isolation and you were picked on.  After school you struggled at TAFE and did not complete any course that you commenced.

22You have a quite limited work history, getting labouring jobs, but most of them, not all, but most of them have been short-term.  You have in the main lived in Geelong, save for some extended time in Queensland.

23Of importance in your background was that you were in an intimate and important relationship between the ages of 32 and 35.  Your partner had three children in their early 20s and teens.  You were involved as a father figure to them.  When that relationship ended, you did not cope.  You had been a lifelong user of cannabis.  Once the relationship was over and perhaps as a reaction to its demise, you took up using heroin and ice.

24The drugs that you used, as I said, took a grip of you and saw your circumstances deteriorate markedly.  Your self-esteem and sense of purpose have always been low.  It seems clear you are, and have been, depressed, and this further impacts on your sense of worth.  It is cyclical with the added and concerning aspect that much of your abuse of drugs is said to have been your way of dealing with your mental health problems, in particular, after your relationship ended.

25You were assessed by a forensic psychologist, Mr Cummins and a neuro- psychologist, Dr Vowels, who were arranged by your lawyers.

26Mr Cummins concluded you have been depressed and anxious and did not adjust to the end of your relationship.  He indicated that you were medicated in prison for depression, as you had been in the community, prior to being remanded. 

27He acknowledged your low intellect, but in the end considered your rehabilitation was likely to be determined by your capacity to remain drug free in the community.

28He noted your acknowledgment yourself of your drug problem and your express determination to engage in serious drug rehabilitation upon your release.  This is to your credit.

29He thought your prison term would be more onerous because of your mental health problems and I will, to a degree, ameliorate your sentence because of this.

30You were also seen by a neuro-psychologist as there were concerns as to whether you had cognitive deficits, either lifelong or from an acquired brain injury or injuries.  The comprehensive testing done by Dr Vowels revealed that you have a lower to borderline intellectual capacity, but are not intellectually disabled.  Your deficits are in learning new tasks and persevering with tasks.  All of which have made your working life problematic.

31She also considered that you were poor at decision making, organising yourself and solving problems.  She considered that you were, in the circumstances, likely to be impulsive.  She also noted your depression and your fragile self-esteem.

32Your cognitive problems that she detected would, in Dr Vowels' view, mean your drug rehabilitation would have to be particularly tailored to your capacities.

33I have also taken into account, as I have said, the letter from Barwon Health briefly setting out what they did for you during your time as an inpatient in December 2013, and the provision of services thereafter as an inpatient.

34Also I have taken into account the letter from the Salvation Army which revealed that you, yourself, were trying to get into inpatient drug rehabilitation in Geelong. 

35You had a spot waiting for you in the days after you committed the armed robbery and attempted armed robbery on 26 April 2014.

36It gives me a degree of confidence that you can make good your express determination to rehabilitate on your release. 

37Your counsel, Mr Brugman, submitted on the basis of your early plea, your co-operation and remorse, and generally your facilitation of the course of justice, also your mental health problems and the salutary effect of your first time in custody, that the inevitable sentence of imprisonment that I will impose should be kept at a minimum, to allow for a community-corrections order to follow the gaol term.

38In the new community-corrections regime I would be permitted to add a community-corrections order, providing that the term of imprisonment that I impose to be served was less than two years.

39The prosecution contended that the gravity of the offences and the need for deterrence to others, lead to the conclusion that even when your personal circumstances are factored into the equation, only a gaol term is appropriate and longer than would allow for a community-corrections order as well.

40In my view, the need for denunciation and deterrence, and the need to give weight to the impact of your crimes on the victims, in particular, the two young women, and the impact on the community, together with the other crimes that you committed, including that you were on bail at the time of the armed robbery and attempted armed robbery; taking all these matters, and all matters both for and against you, that in the end a gaol term is necessary and it must be one longer than would allow for a community-corrections order as well.

41I have moderated the sentence that I will shortly announce because of your mental health problems at the time of your offending and subsequent.

42In my view, the mental health problems that you were suffering at the time, justifies me not visiting the full impact of denunciation upon you, thus your moral culpability is seen as lower because of your mental health problems.

43Also I have taken into account in your favour that your time in prison will be harder because of your mental health problems and also because you are now in protection as a consequence of being stood over while on remand.

44This is your first time in prison and that is not overlooked.  You have plainly learnt a lesson and the deterrent effect on you is plain.  Your prior criminal history is relevant, but I have not over-emphasised those matters, given the nature of them and them and the penalties imposed.

45Your plea of guilty, your remorse and your continuing facilitation of the course of justice is a matter of real significance.  You have saved the victims the added trauma of court hearings and that is always a relief to those who have already suffered enough.

46Additionally, your plea and remorse provides further indication that you will do as you now say, and that is, never offend again, and do everything remain off drugs.

47The sentence I impose will be significantly less than would be otherwise the case because of your plea of guilty and the matters that attach to it.

48To establish conditions that will facilitate your rehabilitation, I have, in my view, given the seriousness of your crimes, only the capacity to fix a period of potential parole.  You will need assistance and supervision for some time on your release, especially in light of your cognitive difficulties, as referred to by Dr Vowels.

49I have considered the principle of totality and as the statute requires of me, I have had regard to current sentencing practices.  There must be some cumulation, as I say, I have re-visited the overall sentence to ensure that it is just, appropriate, proportionate and meets the totality of your crimes, no more and no less.

50Will you please stand, Mr Becroft.  For committing the crime of armed robbery, you are sentenced to a further imprisonment of two years' and six months'.

51For committing the crime of attempted armed robbery, you are sentenced to a period of imprisonment of two years.

52For committing the crime of theft from the car and then the use of the credit card for the theft, you are sentenced to three months' imprisonment; and for obtaining property by deception, you are sentenced to two months' imprisonment.

53In respect of the burglary on your parents' home, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six months.

54For the crime of the theft of items from the house, a sentence of one month, and for the crime of theft of the car, a sentence of three months'.

55For the crime of handling stolen goods, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of one month.

56I order that 12 months on Charge 2, the attempted armed robbery; one month on the Charge 3, the theft, and two months on the charge of burglary, be served cumulatively upon Charge 1 and upon each other, giving a total sentence of three years' and nine months' and I fix a minimum non-parole period of two years'.

57You have already spent some time in gaol that is now 184 days, and I declare that the 184 days is part of the sentence that I have just imposed.  That is my reckoning.  I will ensure that the declaration that I have just made is entered into the records of the court so the prison authorities are left in no doubt that you have already served 184 days of the sentence.

58Had you pleaded not guilty to these crimes and been found guilty of them, I would have imposed a sentence of five years' and six months' with a minimum period of three years' and six months'.

59As a consequence of the crime of theft of the motor vehicle, I am obliged to make an order affecting your licence and I order that your licence be cancelled and you be disqualified from holding a licence in the State of Victoria for the period of six months starting today.

60The prosecution has sought an order that you provide a forensic sample.  I intend to grant that order.  The reason that I do so is the seriousness of the offences, that you do not stand in the way of the taking of a forensic sample, and in the end it is in the interests of justice, given the nature of the crimes you committed, and the fact that your DNA should be on the database.

61So what that means is that when the authorities come to take a forensic sample, they will do so, as I understand it, by seeking a scraping from your mouth.  You have to co-operate with them in the taking of it, and if you do not, then they are authorised to use reasonable force to obtain sufficient sample so the DNA can be extracted.

62The way through it, of course, is to say as you did through your lawyer, that you consent to it and you co-operate.

63There are a range of orders that also follow for compensation.  I intend to make those orders in relation to the theft, and the $20 you stole, and there are other orders relating to disposal which I will sign shortly.

64Mr Becroft, you can be seated while I just do those matters.

65MR BRUGMAN:  Your Honour pleases.

66HIS HONOUR:  Did the mathematics add up, or arithmetic?

67MR BRUGMAN:  Yes, Your Honour.

68HIS HONOUR:  The disposal orders relate to the clothes that you showed the police and tossed in various places.

69I have signed all those orders.  Nothing else?

70MS HARROLD:  No, Your Honour.

71MR BRUGMAN:  No, Your Honour.

72HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  I am grateful to counsel for their assistance in hearing this case quickly, or at short notice.

73Mr Becroft, the court room is not set-up so that you can spend any time with your father or anyone else, so Mr Brugman will come and see you, but you have to be taken to the cells now, so if Mr Becroft could be removed.

74(Offender removed.)

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