Director of Public Prosecutions v Causby

[2024] VCC 391

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

CR 23-01715

THE DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

CLIFTON CAUSBY

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	25 March 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	26 March 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Causby
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 391

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:              

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr M. White	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr T. Fitzpatrick	Slink & Keating Barristers and Solicitors

HIS HONOUR:

1Clifton Charles Causby, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of burglary, one charge of theft of a firearm, that being a number of firearms, and one charge of theft simplicita.  They carry maximum penalties of 10 years, 15 years and 10 years respectively.  You also pleaded guilty to an uplifted charge of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail.  Now, on that charge, you are convicted and discharged.

2You are now 43 years of age.  You pleaded guilty at a reasonably early opportunity, I understand there was a committal or something along those lines.  It is important to understand in this situation whilst I regard remorse as problematic, and I will give you the benefit of the doubt in that respect, that you gave information to police about who your co-offenders were and it is also clear from the materials to me that it would have been almost impossible for the Crown to obtain a conviction against you without your admissions.  Even with the admissions that you did make, the result of a trial may well have been debateable.  In any event, there needs to be an observable indulgence given to that and I do so.

3You have pleaded guilty in the time of Worboyes and I take that into account.  Also in the time of COVID, you must get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty saving the unfortunate victim in this matter the need to give evidence. 

4You do have prior convictions, although I note with some interest that they do not really start until your late 30s.  You have been gaoled before for stealing guns, and that is a very concerning prospect.  The community will not wear people stealing guns and putting them back into the community so they can be used for the committing of crimes.

5You obviously have drug problems and a personality problem and I will come to that again in a moment.  The offending in the normal course of events calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, particularly the guns which is serious. It also calls for denunciation and appropriate punishment.  When it comes to firearms there is also an element of community protection that must be given credence to.

6

A brief summary of the offending is that you and a Ms Sheehan, who I interpolate is being dealt with in the Magistrates' Court and there's no parity questions here at all, knew each other. You had worked with a man, Mr Pitt, who lived on the

Yackandandah-Myrtleford Road

. You knew him well, worked with him for years and you knew he was an avid firearms enthusiast who participated in recreational hunting and competition shooting.  You were aware of his working hours.  In any event, it is a bit difficult to work out what took place here.  You had a short time prior to this incident, spoken to Mr Pitt who had confirmed again the times that he would be working.  But in any event, he was working doing an afternoon shift at work and at 5.34 pm he had looked at his home CCTV cameras make sure his dogs were all right.  The cameras were working.

7On this evening you and your co-accused went to that address.  You apparently met other unidentified co-offenders – well, officially unidentified co-offenders as you purport to have known them.  The external CCTV system was disabled by offenders.  I do not know what that showed, whether it showed other people, whether it showed you or not.  But in any event, the Crown case is not put on the basis that you entered the premises, it cannot be, it can only be put on the basis of complicity in that you are either a supplier of information or an aider and abetter of them, if I am still allowed to use that expression. 

8But in any event, the most serious part of the offending was that once inside, a gun safe was located.  It had five operable firearms including a shotgun and four rifles.  There was also a large amount of assorted ammunition compatible to those guns.  They were locked inside an internal cupboard secured to a wall.  Force was used to remove the safe from the wall and the whole safe was taken, which of course contained the firearms and ammunition.

9It is sometimes said that these are opportunistic when these guns are found, but certainly having spent a long time on circuit over the last 20 years, I have got no doubt that these targets are planned.  In any event, a number of other items were taken including a sewing machine, the vehicle belonging to Mr Pitt which you are not charged with, the firefighting water tank, his CFA firefighting helmet, various tools, hunting jacket, earmuffs and all sorts of other things.

10You two, that is you and Sheehan then apparently left the area, went back to her house where you were, by inference, seen a day or so later.  Police attended - where Mr Pitt’s vehicle was found.  I do not have to go through all the detail of that.  Sheehan was immediately suspected.  Forensic evidence linked her to the scene.  I do not know what she said in her record of interview, but in any event, when police raided you, they found on your phone photographs as I understand it of the firearms that had been stolen.  Your counsel says you took that photo as some form of self-protection.  A scenario which I regard with some serious doubt.

11But in any event, I have made my point that the Crown could not have got a conviction without your admissions and you must get the benefit of that.  Unfortunately, the firearms have still not been located.  I do not sentence on the basis that you know where they are or where they went - that would be unfair to you.  A number of the other items that were taken have been recovered.  Your interview was all over the place, but simply, you made enough admissions to put you at the scene.  It is pretty clear that self-protection was involved in all that but again, it does not aggravate the situation.

12In any event, that is effectively it.  You were charged after the interview.  You have now been on remand for 312 days for this matter.  You have got around about, as I understand it, about 40 days or so of what might be called Renzella time, on another matter or other matters for which you have been dealt with in the meantime.

13There is before me a victim impact statement, where Mr Pitt describes the frustration of having these items taken for no real purpose and the anxiety of concern about the house being left empty.  He resides there alone.  I can well understand the anxiety this has brought about in that regard, to know that your premises were invaded by effectively a gang clearly looking for firearms is a very concerning prospect indeed. 

14Gaol is the only option here, there is no question about that.  I think the matter is too serious in your situation to warrant a Community Corrections Order.  You have had one of those in the past, but I think in these circumstances as I discussed with your counsel, I am not going to buy into what the Parole Board might or might not do, but with that sort of pre-sentence detention, I think a straight sentence here is within range.  The sentence I give would normally be accompanied by a minimum term, but here that would be academic and would almost certainly operate unfairly to you.  Were I to impose what you have already gone through as a head sentence I think that would be simply not enough and I make that clear.

15In any event, it has to be gaol so I look to matters personal to you.  Tendered on your behalf were some very helpful submissions from your counsel, as well as a report from Mr Cunningham, who is well known to me, and also extensive medical records.  I have had the benefit of reading the somewhat discursive sentencing comments of His Honour Judge McInerney a few years ago, when he gaoled you for the firearms offences then, and I have obviously taken those into account.  The real problem from your point of view is that, despite what he said to you at that time, you have done it again.

16In any event your background is a relatively simple one.  You were born in Tasmania.  Your mother and father raised you in Albury with three siblings.  Your father was an alcoholic and was violent to your mother.  You left home at about 12 and couch surfed.  You lived with a sister before returning to your family in Tasmania.  At the age of 18 you returned to the mainland and again couch surfed.  You then went through a very stable period of your life.  You had a 20-year relationship that produced two children aged 23 and 22.  You worked the entire time as I understand it throughout that, and you were obviously law-abiding and a respected member of the community

17Unfortunately, around about three or four years ago, a little bit more perhaps, your partner started to use methamphetamine and introduced you to it.  You became addicted.  She stopped using it but you continued to use it.  You had real feelings of abandonment and the like from your childhood.  You then separated and you then did a gaol sentence. During that time the assets were taken and apparently the house was sold and you received nothing from it.  You have effectively been couch surfing since around about that time.  I am told by your counsel that you do have accommodation available to you upon your ultimate release and that gives me some confidence.  It is also clear from the first 38 years of your life with very little offending and now I assume not having used for something like a year, you should have a good chance of being able to get back to work which you are clearly good at and getting your life back on track.

18Mr Cunningham described the medications you had in the past.  You have been diagnosed with a borderline personality disorder by a psychiatrist and Mr Cunningham agrees with all that.  He goes through what I have just mentioned in very simple terms about being flogged by your father, and all the bad memories of your childhood.  He points out that borderline personality disorder is a trauma diagnosis which carries on through life.  In my view in this situation, the general principles of Bugmy apply but not the specific ones. I think this offending was planned but I certainly taken into account that you had a very difficult start to your life and did very well for a long time before probably the use of drugs destroyed everything that you had endeavoured to achieve. 

19As I understand it, you are estranged from your daughter but your son is in contact with you and it is hoped that that relationship can be maintained once you are ultimately released from custody.  To your credit you have done a large number of programs in gaol.  People in your situation often just simply drop their bundle and sit in the cell. You clearly have not done that and you are clearly a man with a degree of energy who could, obviously there is no reason why you could not work as I think I have said, generally get on with your life.

20

If I have to take all those matters into account, the prospect of your rehabilitation are going to be literally up to you.  I am not going to put you on a

Community Corrections Order.  There would be no parole involved, it is up to you.  The risk of you re-offending if you do not use I would think would be very low indeed.  If you do use, I think it will be very high - that is your decision.  Were you to be charged with offending such as this again, that is burglaries and pinching firearms and the like, you would be receiving a very significant sentence indeed.  And in those circumstances I think that sufficient specific deterrence for you but general deterrence also has to have attention paid to it and that is why it has to carry custody and it has to be a significant sentence.

21But in any event I am prepared in this situation, as it is the one transaction, to make the sentences concurrent.

22On the charge of Charge 1, burglary, six months.  Charge 2, theft of firearms, 14 months.  Charge 3, theft, six months.  Charges 1 and 3 to be served concurrently with Charge 2, giving a total effective sentence of 14 months.  For the reasons I have outlined I do not propose to impose a minimum term on that sentence.  I do not know how much COVID time you may have already, but be that as it may.  I also direct that the sentence I impose today be served concurrently with any sentence currently being undergone.  I direct that 312 days be reckoned as having being served under this sentence.

23Yours is a very unusual situation insofar as the material that you gave to police is concerned and to give a 6AAA in one sense is a bit ridiculous because you are only here because of your assistance to police but just so it is clearly understood how serious I do regard this, leaving aside your personal matters, but for your plea of guilty you would have been sentenced to be in prison for a period of two and a half years with a minimum term of 18 months.

24All right.  No other orders I need to make gents?

25MR WHITE:  No, you've announced already the one we were seeking so, thank you, Your Honour.

26HIS HONOUR:  Yes and that's all done.  Do you need to talk to your client?

27MR FITZPATRICK:  Yes, just briefly, Your Honour.

28HIS HONOUR:  Yes, we can do.

29MR FITZPATRICK:  I was going to organise the other anyway. Thank you, Your Honour.

30HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

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