Director of Public Prosecutions v Bourne

[2018] VCC 1429

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-00664

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JASMINE BOURNE

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	28 August 2018
DATE OF SENTENCE:	30 August 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Bourne
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 1429

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Cases Cited:
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr M. Perry	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms T. Theocharous	Emma Turnbull Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Jasmine Louise Bourne, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence in not less than a commercial quantity, one charge of making a false document, two charges of possession of a drug of dependence, one charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime negligently, and one charge of possessing an unregistered general category handgun, that being a pen pistol.  You have also pleaded guilty to a significant number of uplifted summary matters and insofar as those matters are concerned, other than the carry a prohibited weapon which was a taser, for which you will be sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of one month concurrent, an aggregate sentence of $2,000 and any licence to drive a motor vehicle is cancelled, that is on Charge 17, and you are unable to obtain one for a period of six months commencing today.

2You are 28 years of age.  You pleaded guilty to a settled indictment, and you must get the benefit of that.  Insofar as remorse is concerned, you have expressed remorse and I take that into account.  You must also of course, in a situation such as this, get a significant benefit for the utilitarian effect of your plea of guilty.  Trials such as this take a very long time and use up a lot of community resources and have police tied up for months on end.  There must be an encouragement given for people to plead in such matters.

3Originally, you were charged with trafficking in a large commercial quantity and I am not aware of the amounts that are involved here and to make it clear, I am not sentencing you for large commercial quantity and it may indeed be that in terms of negotiating a settlement, you have gained yourself a considerable benefit already from having that charge being withdrawn.  At the time of the offending, you were on a community corrections order for trafficking amphetamine.  You were originally placed on a community corrections order for trafficking and possessing amphetamine in August of 2015.

4As I understand it and I am not going to go into the detail of all that, that was part and parcel of another very significant drug investigation, where a number of people were eventually sentenced to significant periods of imprisonment.  For whatever reason, that CCO back in August of 2015 was breached and it was varied in October of 2016 during the middle of all this trafficking to incorporate further conditions.  The fact of the matter is that I am not dealing with you for that breach but this offending has all taken place with that all in the background. 

5It is clear from all the material before me that insofar as the people that I am called upon to sentence, there are eight of you in this particular matter, yours in the most significant role.  And indeed it could be almost said in one way that the organisation was yours.  But in any event, your offending is over a period of about eight months.  On the Crown estimate and this is not going to be held to any minute sum, it is in excess of 3 kilograms that you have trafficked in.  I note that Mr Miller participation was 2 and a half months and Mr Brown's was two and a half months.  The value of the amount that you are known to have trafficked in is in excess of $800,000.  Very significant amounts and sums indeed.

6Throughout that period of time, there were drop-offs, you were organising the purchase of drugs and you were actively and vigorously, as was the case with the others, pursuing this business.  In the course of the intercepts which I have read and I am not going to summarise them, the opening remains on the court file, there are references to guns and debt collecting. It is a professional business indeed.  There is evidence in the brief of you purchasing the equipment to set these men up, you were buying hundreds of deal bags and as I say, it is a very serious example.  Anybody that has a genuine interest in the depth and level of it only has to read the Crown opening which as I think I have already said, is exhibited.

7The circumstances were such that you were becoming aware that problems were occurring and you were intercepted in 15 November 2016, as I understand

it, have remained in custody ever since.  You were driving in a vehicle, police intercepted you.  You tried to break free of their cordon and they then arrested you inside the vehicle.  You were in possession of 79.2 grams of methylamphetamine on that occasion in ziplock bags.  In your vehicle were found various items, a pen pistol and ammunition, lock boxes, trafficking ledgers and other matters associated with drugs.  Pen pistols really only have one purpose in their life, and it is pretty obvious what that is. 

8In any event, you, after your arrest, made various phone calls.  You spoke to other people, pointing out who was in custody and how matters were progressing.  In terms of your involvement in all this, you, in speaking to your parents, made reference to all this and indeed on 26 November, you have conversation with your mother about going and getting stuff out of the safe. There are things that need to be burned.  You are obviously making endeavours to get rid of things.  On the 27th you again speak to her, talking about getting Xanax and money and cash.  And then on 14 December, after you have been in custody for about a month you spoke to your mother on the phone again.  You pointed out that the co-accused, Taleah was turning 19 that day.  You talk about a bank account saying that there should a $10,000 check in it.  You talk about other money.

9You talk about financial issues involved, including paying the rent for a storage shed.  You then say to your mother, "Get on to Cain, he owes me money and every other cunt.  Get him to do fucking money orders, 140 bucks a month.  These junkies can afford that".  You then said, "I was making more than every other cunt".  It is professed now that you have remorse for all this.  At the time I have got no idea what your mental state was but you were heavily involved and persistent and I have got no doubt this is a very serious example of this sort of offence.  Very serious indeed in my view.

10Your counsel very properly and very sensibly conceded that it was "Top end".  There are no prospects in here in regard to the application of the principles in Verdins.  I have read the current sentencing practices in regard to these matters.  I am also aware of Dalgleish and other cases involving sentencing.  It calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, specific to be particular because you have done it before, denunciation and appropriate punishment.

11The situation is that ice is - can only be regarded as an evil drug and destroys lives.  You facilitated a lot of ice going into this community in the north east and unfortunately you will have to pay the price for doing that.  I then turn to matters personal to you and a number of matters raised on your behalf, very properly so by Mr Page and a number of the items tendered. 

12Tendered was a letter from you where you describe your personal circumstances and your position in prison and you are, very sensibly, using gaol to endeavour to better yourself.  I have reports from Meghan Mann from west CASA.  I do not propose, for obvious reasons, in this situation to go into the details of those report.  Verdins is not being relied upon.  It simply goes to the - your background and the difficulties that you have clearly had as a child. 

13You are now receiving counselling in respect of the sexual abuse that took place and, again, I take that into account in the sentencing process but really do not need to take it any further.  You do have a number of certificates which indicate the work that you have been doing upon yourself in gaol and letters from the City Mission, which again talk about the various programs and the efforts that you are making gaol to better yourself.

14The submissions that were put to me were that you are dealing with issues that have caused you difficulty all through your life.  I think there is a risk in your situation in terms of the way that you are responding in gaol of institutionalisation but there is not a lot that I can do about that.  I take into account the matters that happened to you earlier in your life, the fact that you at one stage were working and were doing hairdressing or beauty salon as I understand it and essentially went off the rails. 

15I take into account a poisonous relationship that you had with a man who has been euphemistically referred to as John.  Whatever lies behind all that I have really got no idea.  It would be my tip, though I am not going to speculate in this matter, that you inherited this business from somebody else but whether it was him or not I really have no idea.  The fact of the matter was that you, having either created or inherited this business, pursued it with a great deal of vigour.

16Insofar as co-accused are concerned, the only two who have come close to you in terms of moral culpability are Mr Brown, who I have already sentenced and he has no prior convictions and Mr Miller, who does have a prior conviction but in his situation he was trafficking a significantly lesser amount over a significantly shorter period.  But I do take those matters into account.  In the sentence that I impose I have to be careful in your circumstances to be aware of the principles of totality and not impose a sentence which could be seen as crushing.

17You are clearly making, on the face of it, at least making endeavours to rehabilitate.  The risk of you reoffending if you were released and commenced using ice again, I would think would be 100 per cent.  The prospects of you coming out of gaol and not offending again are totally up to you and it is going to be a situation where I am not, as a sentencing judge, going to try and make predictions about all that.  I will leave that to parole board when the due period of time arises.

18I am aware that you have suffered and do suffer from serious anxiety.  I am also aware that you are being diagnosed as having a post-traumatic stress disorder.  And, as I said, Verdins does not apply here but I accept that those matters would and could make it more difficult for you in gaol and of course the whole history is based upon, effectively, self-reporting.  Be that as it may, I still have to impose an appropriate sentence for this very serious offending that you have committed over an extended period of time having done it before and indeed been given a degree of leniency by courts on an earlier occasion.

19Accordingly, on the charge of commercial quantity trafficking in not less than a commercial quantity, sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of seven years and six months.  On Charge 2, three months, on Charge 3, three months, on Charge 4, three months, on Charge 5, three months and on Charge 6, the pen pistol, 12 months.  I direct that one month of the sentence imposed on Charge 3, one month of the sentence imposed on Charge 4 and four months of the sentence imposed on Charge 6 be served cumulatively upon each other and upon the sentence imposed on Charge 1.

20That gives an effective head sentence of eight years.  In all these circumstances, I direct that you serve a minimum term of five years and three months before becoming eligible for parole and I direct that 653 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence.  I point out that I have been provided with, and indeed, more arrived this morning, (indistinct words) current sentencing practices as it occurred since 2012 in relation to these matters.

21I will make it very clear, I am aware of the matters raised in Dalgliesh and I suspect deeply that the next set of current sentencing practice notes in relation to this sort of offending will have a different bearing all together.  But I am aware of those matters and I am aware of the seriousness of this offending.

22Just so that you are aware of what would have occurred had you run a trial and used up all those resources, but for your plea of your guilty, I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for a period of 12 years with a minimum of nine.

23Are there any other orders I need to make?

24MR PERRY:  I believe ‑ ‑ ‑

25MS THEOCHAROUS:  No, Your Honour.

26MR PERRY:  I believe not, Your Honour.

27HIS HONOUR:  I signed everything the other day, I do believe.

28MR PERRY:  Yes, I think so.

29HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  All right. 

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