Director of Public Prosecutions v Bochrinis
[2023] VCC 820
•18 May 2023
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Suitable for Publication | |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR-21-01023
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| NICHOLAS BOCHRINIS |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE JOHNS | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 18 May 2023 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 18 May 2023 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Bochrinis | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2023] VCC 820 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence
Catchwords: Extortion – Common Assault – Plea of guilty – Application to change plea
Sentence: Four months’ imprisonment
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr P. Teo | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms A. Hancock |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Nicholas Bochrinis, you pleaded guilty before me to a charge of extortion and a charge of common assault on 26 May last year, that was after a sentencing indication hearing on 25 May last year. What followed at arraignment was a lengthy and drawn-out change of plea application proceedings which I have summarised elsewhere and I do not propose to do now, but it effectively resulted in you being in close contact with this court over a nine-month period. I also heard accounts by you, including one on oath, as to your dissatisfaction with your legal representation at the time and I accept that you had a basis for some grievance in relation to some aspects of your representation.
2 It was also touched on by submissions in Court as to your role in relation to the events, the subject of the Indictment and over the course of those drawn-out proceedings I came to a view about you and your prospects of rehabilitation and also what I was prepared to accept as to your role in relation to the matters before the Court. There is an opening which sets out clearly your role that is Exhibit A on the plea. There was also CCTV footage which supported that which I have seen and which I have commented on previously.
3 In relation to other sentences, I sentenced Mr Gemci and Mr Corbett on 24 June last year, and I set out in those reasons from paragraph four a brief summary of the circumstances of offending. Exhibit A forms part of the reasons for the sentence I am about to impose. I will also refer to the circumstances as I summarise them in the sentence of Mr Corbett and Mr Gemci and that also touches on your role, and at paragraph 7 I stated ‘Mr Bochrinis and Mr Fiore were present also supporting the assault.’
4
But no doubt Corbett was the principal, aided and abetted significantly by
Mr Gemci, whose criminality went beyond the initial scope of the enterprise. Yours was very much a background role. You were arrested and spent around seven months in custody. How many days was it, Mr Teo?
5 MR TEO: Two hundred and twenty days, Your Honour.
6 Two hundred and twenty days, which for a person of your background who had never experienced custody before must have been an extremely difficult, terrifying and depressing experience, none the least of which was it being right in the heart of the pandemic, or much of it was. Actually, you were bailed in May 2020, so you would have experienced a couple of months at least of pandemic conditions in custody.
7
You are 49 years of age. You completed your primary schooling at
Fairfield Primary and Year 12 at St Johns Greek Orthodox College in Preston. You started a Bachelor of Marketing at Swinburne, worked as a sales representative and displayed an entrepreneurial nature , purchasing properties, engaging in small-scale property development.
8
At 25 you met your wife. You were married for 17 years with two children.
You separated amicably, I was told, in 2015. Your children reside with their mother, but you are very involved in their lives, you see them regularly. You ran a car park for about 19 years and once you sold that you started property development full time through your company, Champion Investment Group.
9 You were involved in some division of land in the outer north western suburbs, operating the company from 2014 to 2018. So that background is a very unlikely background for someone who spent seven months in custody from an enterprise such as this.
10 In 2017 and 2018 you have told the Court and I accept that you were the victim of an extortion which led to fraudulent loans being taken out in your name in relation to properties and vehicles and Champion Investment Group was liquidated.
11 Clearly, you also around that time began seeing a GP for anxiety and depression. Clearly your life around that time 2018/2019 was on a downward spiral. I do not for a moment think that I understand the full set of circumstances. You became involved with people who were quite clearly not a good influence. I am not sure exactly, but the basis of your unravelling, the fraudulent loan probably had a fair bit to do with it, but for someone with a fairly unblemished record you had a few issues with the law. It was largely out of character for you - the behaviour you engaged in which underpins the Indictment.
12 You were bailed on very strict conditions when you were bailed in May 2020 and you resided with your mother. Those conditions included a curfew from
10pm to 6am, restrictions from specific suburbs and you had $50,000 surety. So, you complied with that bail for three years effectively, which is a high-level of supervision.
13 Nothing pending, nothing in the meantime. Effectively this was four years ago, the offending, and there are no other matters after that. There is the degree of de facto supervision this Court has had over you for the past nine months or so. I take all of those matters into account particularly when I apply the principle of parity in regard to the sentences imposed on Mr Fiore and Mr Corbett and
Mr Gemci, and the various roles therein.
14 I have regard to other factors such as general deterrence, denunciation, protection of community and your prospects of rehabilitation. I propose to impose an aggregate sentence on you over the two charges on the indictment given their connection in time and factually.
Sentence
15 And the sentence I’m going to impose is less than the time you have actually served.
16 I take into account the time you have served and I impose a sentence of four months' imprisonment.
17 Pre-sentence declaration in your case is
220 days.
18 Were it not for your plea of guilty, had this matter been contested and not guilty in all likelihood you would have been sentenced to a head sentence of 12 months with a non-parole period of six months.
19 MR TEO: Your Honour, I believe that I've neglected to pick up something, that is that there was a notice of related summary offences.
20 HIS HONOUR: Yes, I was thinking that as I was going through and my associate is furiously writing notes so it was committed indictable offence on bail, that's right. It's in this, it's outlined the reference to the matter that he was fined with conviction for a matter – he's on bail for that matter.
21 MR TEO: Yes.
22 HIS HONOUR: Thanks Mr Teo, so - - -
23 MR TEO: And it occurred to me that that may not have been put to Mr Bochrinis or his priors as well given he was simply arraigned at the end of the sentence indication, so.
24 HIS HONOUR: He was arraigned the following day. We can check that. Yes, the criminal history was admitted, the summary charge was put at arraignment. So, in relation to the committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, I impose a sentence and look that's part of the aggregate sentence of four months. I think that concludes the matter, there's nothing else there's no orders.
25 MR TEO: No.
26 HIS HONOUR: Thank you Ms Hancock, thank you Mr Teo. All right,
Mr Bochrinis you can get on with things.
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