Director of Public Prosecutions v Bryant
[2023] VCC 2036
•2 November 2023
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Suitable for Publication |
AT BENDIGO
CRIMINAL DIVISION
CR 23-00931
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| SHARNI BRYANT |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE CHETTLE | |
WHERE HELD: | Bendigo | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 2 November 2023 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 2 November 2023 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Bryant | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2023] VCC 2036 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW SENTENCE
Catchwords: Sentencing – traffick drug of dependence, possess drug of dependence, knowingly deal / conceal proceeds of crime, possess a schedule 4 poison - plea of guilty
Legislation Cited: 6AAA Sentencing Act 1991
Cases Cited:
Sentence:Imprisonment – Total effective sentence – 5 years and 6 months, non-parole period 3 years and 9 months. Sentenced as a serious drug offender. Fine, Forfeiture and disposal orders.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms S. Thomas | Ms K. Parnham, Ms I. Abdulnour, Office of Public Prosecutions. |
| For the Accused | Ms S. Gillahan | Ms S. Lenarcic, Slink and Keating. |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Sharni Anne Bryant, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking in a drug of dependence in a quantity not less than a commercial quantity. You pleaded guilty to three charges of possession of a drug of dependence. You pleaded guilty to two charges of knowingly deal with or conceal proceeds of crime. In addition, you pleaded guilty to three related summary offences, two of failing to provide passwords for computers when directed and one of possession of a Schedule 4 poison.
2 The facts of your offending are set out in Exhibit A, the prosecution summary of plea with attached appendix or schedule. I was informed by your counsel that I could treat that document as an agreed statement of fact. I incorporated into these reasons for sentence and sentence you on the basis of the facts set out both in the summary and in the annexure.
3 Briefly stated you and two other co-offenders in 2022 engaged in trafficking, repeated trafficking, of methylamphetamine and 1,4-Butanediol throughout the Bendigo area. You were observed by neighbours to have a considerable amount of traffic of people attending for short periods of time at your property and significantly the police were able to establish quantities of your trafficking by reference to intercepts and observations made of you over the period of your trafficking period.
4
Between 21 November 2022 and 23 January of this year you and your
co-accused traffick in 258.3 grams of methylamphetamine and over 4.2 millilitres of 1,4-Butanediol. There is a schedule that sets out the details of each of how those totals were arrived at, suffice to say that it shows repeated methylamphetamine transactions over the period. Having said that as I discussed with your counsel both the quantities of methylamphetamine and Butanediol are towards the lower end of quantities or – the offences are the lower-level seriousness for the serious offence of commercial quantity drug dealing.
5 When you were arrested by the police in January of this year you attempted to flush a bag of methylamphetamine down the toilet. I do not know the exact quantity of that drug but it was not weighed, at least there is no information for me about it being weighed. Various small quantities of 1,4- Butanediol were located around the area of your home and a total of $2,000 in your handbag and another sum of money of $1,045. Why there are two charges I do not know, but there are two separate charges, one for each of those sums of money.
6 You were interviewed by police and suffice to say you were evasive, untruthful and dishonest in your responses to the police. You refused to provide them with the passwords to the two phones though you were directed to do so on two occasions and that relates to the two summary offences to which I have referred. You have admitted a prior criminal history which for someone at 30 years of age is extremely concerning. You have multiple prior convictions for drug trafficking offences and I will have to deal with some of those prior convictions.
7 On 6 August 2015 you were convicted of two charges of trafficking methylamphetamine and use methylamphetamine and received a community corrections order. You have numerous other convictions for possession of drugs both methylamphetamine, ecstasy and handling and possession of stolen goods.
8 On 15 June 2016 you were before the court on three charges it would appear of trafficking methylamphetamine and received an aggregate term of 36 days of imprisonment so I suspect that the quantity was not extensive.
9 On 23 September of the same year, 2016, you were again before the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on a charge of trafficking methylamphetamine and associate charges, another charge of trafficking cannabis and together with other handling offences and dishonesty offences you received an aggregate of imprisonment of two months an attached community corrections order.
10 On 28 October 2016 you breached the order that you had previously been given and there was a further community corrections order imposed.
11 On 21 January 2018 you had a number of – you were again before the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on entering premises without permission, trespass, possessing a Schedule 4 poison, possessing heroin, committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, obtaining property by deception, possession of cannabis and significantly trafficking in methylamphetamine again. And you received an aggregate term of imprisonment with a non-parole period of, I think, it was six months. I was informed by your counsel that you served nine months of that sentence before you were released on parole and you indicated that the parole period was much more helpful than perhaps some of the corrections orders you have had.
12 Finally, on 10 June 2021 you were before the Bendigo Magistrates' Court on trafficking 1,4-Butanediol, possessing Bute, possessing methylamphetamine, possessing cannabis, possessing LSD and failing to comply with directions to assist. You were sentenced to an aggregate term of imprisonment of nine months with an attached community corrections order to follow and you were serving that community corrections order when you committed some of the trafficking that I have to deal with you for.
13 Turning to your personal – or perhaps before I leave your prior convictions I note and I accept that those prior convictions all relate to conduct that you engaged in subsequent to the death of your mother. On 27 December 2013 your mother died and you fell into drug use and to feed your own drug habit you committed criminal offences including trafficking offences to fund it.
14 Turning to your personal circumstances they are set out in firstly the report of Aaron Cunningham, Exhibit 2, and the submissions of your counsel, Exhibit 1. You were born in Victoria. You were raised by your mother and you were the victim of both physical and sexual abuse at the hands of your stepfather at a very young age. When your grandmother found out about that your mother confronted your stepfather and was the victim of assault herself, terminating the relationship she had with him.
15 You spent your youth and your early 20s looking after your mother. She died when you were 19, as I understand it from breast cancer. You looked after her and were significantly traumatised by her death, and it is after her death that you started using drugs, as I referred to before.
16 Mr Cunningham outlines your educational history. You were educated, I think, to Year 10 level and have had really little employment since. You have had very few jobs. It seems that you have been in and out of prison and living a drug fuelled criminal life. You appear to have developed some insight in relation to your drug use. You wrote a letter to the court, Exhibit 6, which I hope is genuine. You think that being in prison has been a blessing in disguise. You think it saved your life and you resolve to turn your life around and live a drug free existence.
17 OFFENDER: Yes.
18 HIS HONOUR: That is what you tell me. And you have certainly indicated you have done everything you can in custody to better yourself. You have completed many, many courses and there is a bundle of certificates that have been tendered that demonstrate that you are making the most of your time in custody.
19 OFFENDER: Yes.
20 HIS HONOUR: There is a letter from the women's support prison network indicating that they have had regular contact with you and they are impressed by your attitude to rehabilitation and your commitment to the programs you are completing and you are genuine in wanting to turn your life around. I really hope that is the case. As I said during your plea I hear a lot of people tell me that.
21 OFFENDER: Yes.
22 HIS HONOUR: But if you do not, you know full well that you will back in gaol again.
23 OFFENDER: I do understand, I know this.
24 HIS HONOUR: All right. Well, in sentencing you I take into account the pleas of guilty that you entered. I accept those pleas were entered at the earliest opportunity. By pleading guilty you have spared the community the time and expense of a criminal trial and it does, I think, demonstrate your remorse for your conduct.
25 OFFENDER: Yes.
26 HIS HONOUR: In addition, those pleas of guilty were entered at a stage when we were still struggling with the courts. We are still struggling with the problems that COVID-19 was causing to our justice system. You are entitled to an even greater reduction in sentence to reflect your pleas of guilty because of those factors, and I will return to that reduction in sentence subsequently.
27 I take into account your prior background in a general way as suggested by your counsel. You simply do not have, or did not have, and I hope you may have acquired them now, the skills to deal with the loss you suffered at the bereavement of your mother, and you could not get yourself out of a cycle of drug use and offending, and then relapsing and going back into the cycle that you got yourself in. I am hoping that you use your time in custody to continue the work you have done and continue to remain drug free.
28 OFFENDER: Yes.
29 HIS HONOUR: The law requires me to impose a term of imprisonment and not a combination sentence for offending for Charges 1 and 2. Trafficking in commercial quantity of drugs of dependence are extremely serious offences and although I accept that these are lower-level examples of that offending they are nonetheless serious offences. Principles of general deterrence and in your case specific deterrence, you have got to be deterred from doing this again. With your history, you have ignored the short sharp gaol terms you have had in the past. Others need to know that if they deal in drugs like you did they will go to prison for substantial periods of time. I accept what the prosecution say that your offending was repetitive, even though it was repetitive low-level street dealing.
30 I propose to impose substantial concurrency for the two trafficking offences, the commercial quantity offences. You were running a single operation. There was very little 1,4-Butanediol being trafficked and there were regular small amounts of methylamphetamine being trafficked. It was one operation and in my view it is appropriate to impose a substantial degree of concurrency in respect of those offences.
31 You fall to be sentenced as a serious offender if I impose a term of imprisonment on Charge 2 and the following charges. That means I have to regard protection of the community from you as the primary sentencing obligation or principle and to do that I can impose a disproportionate sentence, but I do not propose to do so, and the prosecution did not ask me to do so, because I can adequately deal with the protection of the community with the sentences otherwise available to this court. I have carefully considered all the matters urged by your counsel, both before I came into court and since I arrived in court.
32 Would you stand up please. On all charges you are convicted. On Charge 1 of trafficking in a not less than commercial quantity of 1,4-Butanediol you are sentenced to be imprisoned for three years. On Charge 2 of trafficking in a not less than commercial quantity of methylamphetamine you are sentenced to be imprisoned for four years and six months. On Charges 3 and 4, Charge 3 being in possession of methylamphetamine and Charge 4 being the possession of a drug of dependence 1,4-Butanediol, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for nine months. On Charge 5, the possession of cannabis charge, you are fined $200, and on Charges 6 and 7, the possession of the currency, you are sentenced to an aggregate term of imprisonment of six months.
33 I order that one year of the sentence imposed on Charge 1 be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on Charge 2. I declare Charge 2 to be the base sentence. That is an effective term of imprisonment of five years and six months, and I order that you serve three years and nine months of that sentence before being eligible for parole.
34 On the three summary charges; one of possession of a Schedule 4 poison, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for seven days, and on the remaining two summary charges, of failing to comply with directions, you are sentenced to an aggregate term of 14 days. All other sentences will be run concurrently with the sentences I imposed on Charge 1 and 2.
35 I declare pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act that but for your pleas of guilty I would have imposed an effective term of imprisonment of nine years with a non-parole of six years. And I declare 283 days, not including today, of that sentence I have just imposed has already been served. I make the forfeiture and disposal orders sought by the prosecution.
36 HIS HONOUR: Anything else required?
37 MS THOMAS: Nothing else, Your Honour.
38 HIS HONOUR: All right. I wish you well, Ms Bryant. I hope you continue the way you are going.
39 OFFENDER: Yep, thank you.
40 HIS HONOUR: All right. We'll terminate the link. All right. So that is it for the day, 9 o'clock tomorrow.
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