Director of Public Prosecutions v Bonetto

[2015] VCC 1786

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 15-01274
CR 15-01270

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

AMY ELIZABETH BONETTO
MATTHEW SAPIANO

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	7 December 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Bonetto
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 1786

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 P. Triandos
For Accused Bonetto	Mr D. McGlone
For Accused Sapiano	Mr S. Tovey

HIS HONOUR: 

1Amy Elizabeth Bonetto, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with an offence of aggravated burglary, an offence of theft, both of those offences occurring on 4 July 2014, and an offence of conspiracy to commit theft on 10 August 2014.

2You have also admitted a number of prior convictions and court appearances albeit not for offences as serious as those that you face today.

3Matthew Luke Sapiano, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with aggravated burglary, with recklessly causing serious injury and theft, all of which occurred on 4 July 2014, part of the same incident that involved Ms Bonetto on the same occasion.  You also pleaded guilty to an offence of possessing a drug of dependence namely methylamphetamine on 17 August 2014.  You have pleaded guilty to a related summary offence being an offence of committing an indictable offence on 17 September 2014 by possessing the methylamphetamine subject to Charge 4 on the indictment.

4You have admitted a number of prior convictions and court appearances.  Again it seems to me that the offences in your prior criminal history are nowhere near as serious as those involved in this indictment.

5The prosecution tendered and relied upon a summary of prosecution opening which is Exhibit A.  That was read on the last occasion and I am not going to read it again.  I incorporate it into these reasons for sentence in its entirety.

6It catalogues a history of a planned burglary upon a home of the victim Milk and Mr Hall also being present in the expectation that there would be persons in the house and in circumstances where Ms Benetto you were at least part of the planning team.  You organised for Mr Sapiano and Mr Brown to attend and the offence took place in circumstances where Mr Brown and Mr Sapiano went in with weapons.  You yourself selected a weapon albeit that there is no evidence that you actually took part in the burglary itself.

7The events that occurred within the house that was burgled were I am satisfied not planned as such.  You, Ms Bonetto indicated that you did not want anybody hurt.  It seems that once you, Mr Sapiano and along with Mr Brown got in there, Mr Hall showed resistance, armed himself with a bat and sought to protect himself and the property.  It was in those circumstances that you attacked him with the baseball bat and caused him some very serious injuries.

8The victim impact statements and the medical evidence that was relied upon by the prosecution show that he was very seriously injured.  He has injuries which now are a blight on his life.  It has changed his life and in many respects ruined it.  That is a very serious aspect of your offending conduct.

9The offending conduct did not end there because you were involved in stealing items from the property subject of the theft charge.  You, Ms Bonetto, were apparently aware that Mr Hall had been seriously injured in the course of the aggravated burglary but determined along with Ms Milosovic and another to revisit those premises and to conduct a further theft from the premises on 10 August 2014.  That does not reflect well on you.

10The victim impact statements show the degree to which the injuries Mr Hall in particular have impacted not only him but his sister, and will continue to impact them.  Ms Milk too has also been affected by the aggravated burglary upon her premises and the severity of the whole incident and I am bound to take into account the effect on the victims.  Whilst you may not have planned when you went in there to carry out the kind of assault that you did, Mr Sapiano, you must be punished and punished appropriately for that offending conduct.  It is very serious.

11Aggravated burglary is a serious enough offence and ordinarily that attracts a substantial term of imprisonment in its own right.  The sentencing in this particular case as I have indicated is complicated and it has not been an easy exercise to draw a satisfactory balance.

12I accept from all of the material submitted on behalf of both of you, that is, Ms Bonetto and Mr Sapiano, that your lives have been dominated to a very significant degree over many years by the use of illicit substances and in particular Ice.  I hardly need say the extent to which this community suffers as a result of persons like yourselves abusing that drug because it leads to people carrying out serious criminal offences that would otherwise have been out of character.  As I have already indicated, neither of your criminal records suggest that you are naturally disposed to committing offences as serious as this.

13The community undoubtedly is going to be best served if each of you can be rehabilitated.  At the moment that looks a somewhat bleak prospect.  It is made to look a bit better by the fact that each of you made since quite considerable efforts to turn your lives around and each of you now have significant family responsibilities.  Each of you have young children who will require you - each of you - to give of your best without the effect of illicit substances.

14On behalf of each of you, I have received outlines of written submissions and evidence from psychologists and material which supports the proposition that both of you now are drug-free and are remorseful.  Each of you has pleaded guilty and indicated a plea of guilty at a reasonably early stage.  It is to your credit and supports the proposition that you are remorseful.  The fact that you can now see the error of your ways gives rise to some hope that you will continue with this rehabilitation process.

15It is clear from the family support each of you have had in this court that you have a good deal of family support behind you to help you with the continued process of rehabilitation.  Each of you have emotional issues or have had, and that is almost certainly something that needs to be addressed along with your drug abuse if you are to lead productive lives in the future.

16The kind of sentence that I would have imposed had it not been for the efforts that each of you have made, a slightly more optimistic prognosis for rehabilitation and the fact that each of your co-offenders received significant discounts albeit for giving assistance to the prosecution has persuaded me that I can deal with you more leniently than I would otherwise have done by way of combining the punitive effects of a community corrections order along with a term of immediate imprisonment.

17On your behalf, Ms Bonetto, it was submitted eloquently and determinedly - if I may say so - by your counsel that I should not impose any further term of imprisonment.  I cannot accede to that; the offending is too serious even though you were not involved in the recklessly causing serious injury.  You were very much involved in the aggravated burglary and indeed in the conspiracy to commit theft.  In those circumstances it has to be visited with a term of imprisonment.  I have to punish you adequately for your offending conduct.  I have got to denounce your conduct and I have got to deter others in particular.

18I hope that the effect of this matter hanging over your head now for a year and a half and the prospect of a term of imprisonment will have persuaded you that you should not get involved in conduct like this again - along with, of course, the young child that you now have and are dying to get back to.  Nevertheless, I need to impose a term of imprisonment to mark the seriousness of your conduct.

19I have indicated to your counsel I have in mind to impose a term of nine months' imprisonment.  I would couple that with a community corrections order for a period of two years and it would require you to be under the supervision of the Department of Corrections for two years.  You would be required to do 200 hours of community work, 100 hours of which can be offset against rehabilitative programs satisfactorily completed, and so every hour up to 100 hours of that 200 hours you complete of rehabilitative programs, if you complete them satisfactorily can be offset against the 200 hours of unpaid community work.

20I would require you to be the subject of rehabilitation treatment for drug abuse, mental health issues and programs to reduce your risk of reoffending.  Obviously you would have to realise that that would not be terribly easy; it would be a nuisance for you particularly with your family responsibilities but nevertheless it is, you may think, preferable to doing a further term of imprisonment which would otherwise be indicated.

21I have told you what I have in mind; are you willing to consent to that order?

22Yes, Ms Bonetto, yes.

23MR McGLONE:  Can I just have a brief moment, Your Honour?

24OFFENDER BONETTO:  Um, I - can I speak to my ‑ ‑ ‑

25MR TOVEY:  While that's occurring, if I could perhaps approach my client as well?

26HIS HONOUR:  Yes, sure, yes.

27MR McGLONE:  I explained the conditions of the order to her, Your Honour, and my client's given me instructions that she will consent.  I don't know if you wish to hear from her directly, but she's happy to give those ‑ ‑ ‑

28HIS HONOUR:  No, if she's indicated through you, I'll take it from you, yes.

29Mr Sapiano, I have already indicated the sentence that I have in mind for you and it would involve you in a community corrections order after you have completed your 22 months less the pre-sentence detention for two years, 250 hours of unpaid community work in your case, 150 hours of which can be offset against the rehabilitation programs of drugs, mental health and programs to reduce risk of reoffending.  You would be under the supervision of the Department of Community Corrections throughout that period.  Are you willing to consent to that order?

30OFFENDER SAPIANO:  Yes, Your Honour.

31HIS HONOUR:  Yes, all right.  Ms Bonetto, would you stand please.

32For each of the offences of aggravated burglary, theft, and conspiracy to commit theft, I sentence you as follows.  For Charge 1, aggravated burglary, I sentence you to imprisonment for a period of nine months and convict you.  On Charge 2 of theft, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of two months.  On Charge 3 of conspiracy to commit theft, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of three months, all of which will be concurrent with one another so the total effective sentence is nine months' imprisonment.

33I declare 54 days of pre-sentence as time to be reckoned as served on the sentences that I have just imposed, and I order that you be the subject of a community corrections order which will commence at the conclusion of your term of imprisonment with a condition that you complete 200 hours of unpaid community work, that you be the subject of supervision of the Department of Corrections for the two-year period of the order, and that you participate in such rehabilitative programs to address drug abuse, mental health issues and programs to reduce the risk of reoffending as you are directed to participate in.

34As I have indicated, 100 hours of the rehabilitative programs satisfactorily completed can be offset against the 200 hours of unpaid community work.

35I have to tell you that if you breach the order by committing another offence punishable by imprisonment, then not only would you be punished for that offence or those offences but you would be brought back here for breaching the order which would carry in itself up to three months' imprisonment and you would also be resentenced for these offences which would almost certainly involve a more significant term of imprisonment.

36So there is a very strong incentive to complete the order satisfactorily.

37But for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of three years with a non-parole period of two years.

38There are some ancillary orders and I will come to those in a minute.  You can take a seat for the time being.

39Mr Sapiano, would you stand please.

40For the offence of aggravated burglary, Charge 1, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of nine months.  For recklessly causing serious injury, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of 18 months.  For the offence of theft, Charge 3, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of two months.  For Charge 4, possessing a drug of dependence, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of one month, and for the summary offence of committing a criminal offence whilst on bail, I convict you and discharge you.

41I order that the sentence of 18 months on Charge 2 be regarded as the base sentence and I order that four months of the term of imprisonment on Charge 1 be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed for Charge 2, making a total effective sentence of 22 months' imprisonment, and I declare 325 days pre-sentence detention as time to be reckoned as served on that sentence or those sentences and deducted administratively and I order that that fact be noted in the records of the court.

42But for your plea of guilty or pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to five years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of three years.  I also order that on Charges 1, 2 and 3 on the indictment, that you be the subject of a community corrections order for a period of two years, that you complete 250 hours of unpaid community work, 150 hours of which can be offset against satisfactorily completed hours of rehabilitative programs.  You will be the subject of supervision of the Department of Corrections for that two year period and that you submit to and participate in treatment and rehabilitation programs for drug abuse, mental health issues and programs to reduce your risk of reoffending.

43You can take a seat for the moment and what I said to Ms Bonetto about committing offences whilst on an order and indeed failing to comply with any of the terms of the order apply equally to you and there would be consequences which would involve strong prospect of further terms of imprisonment for breaching the order.

44I have also been asked to make disposal orders and forfeiture orders in each case, and I take it there is no objection to those orders being made?

45MR McGLONE:  No, Your Honour.

46HIS HONOUR:  No, all right.  I will just deal with those.  Are the orders ready to sign?  All right. 

47Yes, counsel, would you go with Mr Cain to assist your clients to understand what they're being asked to sign?

48MR TOVEY:  Yes, Your Honour.

49HIS HONOUR:  Yes, all right, I've signed those orders then and the disposal and forfeiture orders are also signed.

50Yes, thank you. 

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