Director of Public Prosecutions v Celona

[2018] VCC 2153

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-01409

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

STEVEN CELONA

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE M.  BOURKE
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	14 December 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Celona
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 2153

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 N Cescato
For the Accused	Mr S Naidoo

HIS HONOUR:

1I am going to impose this sentence on you, a sentence of five years with a minimum term of two-and-a-half years.  Now, I have told you that so you do not have to wait.  I will ask you to give me the courtesy of listening to my reasons for that, and I will ask you to stand at the end for formal sentencing.  All right. 

2I authorise the placing of the audio recording of the sentence of Steven Celona on the media portal.

3Steven Celona, you are to be sentenced for one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence in a commercial quantity, and also the summary offence of dealing with suspected proceeds of crime under s.195 of the Crimes Act. 
The respective maximum sentences are 25 years and two years' imprisonment.

4You pleaded guilty before me on 17 October 2018.  When interviewed by police on 1 February 2018, you made full and what I could see as candid admissions.  The committal went by hand-up brief after which you entered a plea of guilty.  The matter was listed for plea hearing in this court a little over eight months after your arrest. 

5You receive the benefit of your plea of guilty and cooperation, both from an early stage.  You have facilitated the interests of justice, and I find you to be genuinely remorseful.

6At your plea hearing, which ran on 17 October and 12 December, Mr Livitsanos for the Crown tendered a written summary of prosecution opening.  Mr Naidoo and then Mr Habib, for you, tendered the psychological report of Dr Alexandra Belofastov dated 30 June 2018, letters of character reference, certificates related to rehabilitation programs undertaken in remand custody, and your own letter to the court.  On 17 October, Mr Naidoo provided written plea submissions.

7The circumstances of your offending are comprehensively set out in the tendered Crown opening, which is Exhibit A.  My own summary may therefore be shorter. 

8Between December 2017 and February 2018, you sold approximately 630 grams of tablets containing the drug of dependence called ecstasy.

9You did so in partnership with your co-accused, Derek Barbier.  On 26 October, I sentenced him to a term of five-and-a-half years with a minimum term of three-and-a-half years.  Barbier, at the time of the offending, was aged 41 and you were aged 20.  Your role should be seen as essentially without difference.

10In sentencing Barbier, I described the circumstances of the offending as follows, with minor alterations in respect of you.

11Other lesser players were your respective partners, Melissa Wozniak and Stephanie Jarvis.  They have been convicted and fined for related offences.

12Over the relevant period there were seven sales to a covert police operative.  As is typical in such an operation, there were sales of progressively higher quantities.  Paragraph 5 of the Crown opening sets out a schedule of purchases.  You were personally involved in five, Barbier on all seven occasions.

13Quantities ranged from 40 to 1,000 tablets on the seventh prospective sale.  Price ran from $480 to prospectively $6,200.  The seventh sale did not come off.  You were arrested and over 1,000 tablets were seized.

14The schedule sets out your involvement in 631.3. grams of tablet Purity was from 8 to 37 per cent.  The legislative commercial quantity threshold is 500 grams of, as here, a mixture containing the drug.  Total moneys paid over on the sixth successful sales. I make to be $11,455.  Tablets sold were, or contained, small quantities of other drugs or substances.  You purported to sell or try to sell a total of approximately 715 grams of ecstasy tablets. 

15When police raided your home on 1 February 2018, they found 79 tablets of low purity.  They also found $8,000 in cash.  This is the major part of the dealing in proceeds of crime charge.  This money should be treated as at least related to illegal drugs.

16However, I note that you are charged and have pleaded guilty to the offence under s.195 of the Crimes Act.  This category of the offence does not require the states of mind of knowledge or recklessness as to the property being proceeds of crime - as, for example, the case in more serious categories under s.194.  You must be sentenced in accordance with this.

17You are now aged 21 years and are placed in remand custody awaiting this sentence.  You have a functional and supportive family.  Many of the extended family have been present in court.  You have a younger brother and two very young half-siblings, children of your father's second marriage.  Your parents separated when you were seven.  There were some years of instability.  Ultimately, your father had custody of you and your brother, and you lived with him, your stepmother, and then that family from mid-teen age.

18You left school in Year 11 and began an apprenticeship in carpentry.  You are now well into a boiler making apprenticeship.  You may return to that employment, dependent upon the length of your remaining term of imprisonment.

19Your upbringing seems unremarkable and fundamentally supportive.  There has been estrangement from your mother.  However, I note that she has attended court.

20There are no significant psychological or mental health issues.

21You have no prior criminal record.  Accordingly, you have commenced offending at a very serious end.  The reason for your decline into that has been your own drug abuse.  You were introduced to drugs in mid-teen age at school.  There was cannabis, ecstasy and amphetamine.  From age 17, there were parties and clubs and you began using other drugs typical of that milieu.

22Your use became more regular.  You told psychologist Dr Belofastov, for example, that at time of offending you were taking 20 to 30 tablets of ecstasy per week.  On weekends, it could be much more.  You also used cocaine and ketamine.   Work was affected.  You had become dependent.  You were involved in  drug trafficking and sold to support your drug habit.  Dr Belofastov recommends psychological treatment for substance abuse disorder.  You have been in remand custody since February of this year.  You state yourself to be drug-free.

23Trafficking drugs in a commercial quantity is a very serious offence, attracting a high maximum sentence. Your own dependence offers no real mitigation. It is well-known that drug trafficking badly damages our community. In such circumstances, the sentencing considerations of moral culpability, deterrence and the need to condemn and properly punish are important. General deterrence is particularly important. Imprisonment beyond what you have served is the only proper sentence. This is also consistent with s.5(2H) and following sections of the Sentencing Act.

24I also take into account matters personal to you, which should go to reduce the length of that sentence.  They include the following.   

25(1).   Your plea of guilty, cooperation and remorse.   

26(2).   You have no prior convictions.

27(3).   Your personal circumstances.  That particularly includes your youth and prospects for rehabilitation.  You were at the still-immature age of 20 when you offended, and I accept that this has played a role in your judgment and choice. (4).   Perhaps more particularly, you have good prospects of rehabilitation.  You have family support and the potential of work and a career.  I note that if re-employed at your former job,  you will be subject to drug testing.

28The question of parity arises.  There are some favourable differences to Derek Barbier in your case.  Mr Habib has pointed to your particular candour in police interview, lack of criminal record, youth and prospects for rehabilitation.  I have decided that these things justify a lesser sentence than that of Barbier;   but there must still be some reference or comparison to what he received.  Particularly, your youth and prospects for rehabilitation speak for a lesser minimum term.

29After considering what I see to be the relevant matters, I sentence you as follows.  Stand up, please.

30On one charge of trafficking a drug of dependence in a commercial quantity, you are sentenced to four years and nine months' imprisonment.

31On the summary charge of dealing with suspected proceeds of crime, you are sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

32Three months of that sentence is to be served cumulatively upon the sentence of trafficking.

33That is a total effective sentence of five years.

34I direct a minimum term before eligibility for parole of two-and-a-half years.

35I declare the pre-sentence detention - that is, detention already served - at - is it 189?  No, it is much more.

36MR CESCATO:  Three hundred and sixteen days, and not including today, Your Honour.

37HIS HONOUR:  Three hundred and sixteen.  Three hundred and sixteen days.  Thank you.  Under s.6AAA, I indicate that had you not pleaded guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of seven years with a minimum term of five years.  Take a seat, please.  Are there other ‑ ‑ ‑ 

38MR CESCATO:  There are two orders to be made, Your Honour.  The forfeiture order for the cash, $8,335, I believe, and also a mobile phone, and a disposal order for all the drugs.

39HIS HONOUR:  All right.  I will sign those orders now.

40MR CESCATO:  Thank you, Your Honour.  Your Honour, I have attached the certificate of analysis because the disposal order actually refers to ‑ ‑ ‑ 

41HIS HONOUR:  Yes, the status of schedule.

42MR CESCATO:  ‑ ‑ ‑ pp.1-3, the items on pp.1-3.

43HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  I will sign that, too.  I will hand that back to you.  Good, thank you.

44MR CESCATO:  Thank you, Your Honour. 

45HIS HONOUR:  Is there anything else I need to do?

46MR CESCATO:  No, Your Honour. 

47HIS HONOUR:  No.  I think people have come to support you, and they may briefly speak to you before you are taken into custody.  That can happen now.

48MR NAIDOO:  Thank you, Your Honour.  Thank you, Your Honour. 

49HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  Thank you, Mr Naidoo.

50MR NAIDOO:  May I be excused?

51HIS HONOUR:  Yes, thank you. 

52MR NAIDOO:  Thank you, Your Honour. 

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