Director of Public Prosecutions v Ciftci
[2013] VCC 1041
•8 July 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-13-00328
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| TIMUCIN CIFTCI |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE RYAN | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 19 June 2013 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 8 July 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Ciftci | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2013] VCC 1041 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr D J Plummer (Plea) Ms D Tang (Sentence) | OPP |
| For the Accused | Ms B F Franjic (Plea) Ms A Balmer (Sentence) | Balmer & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Timucin Ciftci, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment containing one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, namely methylamphetamine (charge 1), and five charges of possessing a drug of dependence, being Cannabis L (charge 2), MDMA (charge 3), MDA (charge 4), alprazolam (Xanax) (charge 5) and methorphan (charge 6). Additionally, you have pleaded guilty to two related summary offences: first, possessing a prohibited weapon without an exemption in relation to two Tasers, an extendable baton, a laser-pointer, and a dagger; and second, dealing with property, namely $1266.50 suspected of being the proceeds of crime.
2 The maximum penalty for charge 1, trafficking, is 15 years’ imprisonment. In respect of charge 2, as the cannabis is a small amount and the offence was not committed for any purpose related to trafficking, the maximum penalty is 5 penalty units. On charges 3, 4, 5 and 6 the maximum penalty is one year’s imprisonment or 30 penalty units, as these offences too were not committed for any purpose related to trafficking. Each of the related summary offences is punishable by a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment or 240 penalty units.
3 The facts that support the charges are set out in a prosecution opening which was read aloud in court and was tendered as Exhibit A on the plea. In summary, at about 2.46am on 11 July 2012 you were approached by police as you walked along Swan Street, Richmond. Ultimately you were searched, police seized a Taser and a black zip-up case which contained three resealable zip-lock bags containing methylamphetamine that you had in the pockets of your hoodie. Your backpack was searched, and it contained a tin containing four resealable bags, each containing methylamphetamine, $1100 in cash and a small resealable zip-lock bag containing methylamphetamine, amongst other items. You were arrested and taken to the Fitzroy Police Station.
4 Later a warrant was executed at your address at 321/45 Victoria Parade, Collingwood. A search of that place revealed:
· A locked box in a black backpack containing four Glad resealable bags of methylamphetamine.
· A red container on a desk containing a resealable bag of methylamphetamine.
· A black box on a desk containing cannabis.
· A resealable bag on a white table containing methylamphetamine.
· A Taser and two sets of electronic scales on the top shelf of a desk.
· An ASP baton between the arm and cushion of the couch.
· A small box of resealable plastic bags.
· A resealable bag containing methylamphetamine and another bag which contained a white tablet, both contained within a black backpack.
· A resealable sandwich bag containing cannabis which was secreted behind a picture on a windowsill.
· A wooden box on a desk containing two resealable bags containing nine tablets and a resealable bag containing two capsules.
· A dagger on the bottom shelf of a bedside table.
5 Analysis of the seized items revealed:
· The total quantity of methylamphetamine seized was 134.2 grams. The purity of the drug ranged from 80 to 90 per cent. The total quantity of pure methylamphetamine was 109 grams.
· Six tablets weighing 1.6 grams containing MDMA.
· A tablet weighing .3 grams containing MDA.
· A white tablet weighing .1 gram containing alprazolam (Xanax).
· Two green tablets weighing .6 grams containing methorphan.
· Cannabis weighing slightly in excess of 19 grams.
6 The certificate of analysis revealed that the methylamphetamine was packaged in lots ranging from .1 of a gram (a point) to 3.5 grams, 7 grams and 1 ounce lots. You were stocked to provide methylamphetamine to different types of purchasers. The purity of the drug was of the highest order.
7 You have no relevant prior convictions, but have a number of relevant subsequent convictions for offences committed by you whilst on bail for the instant offences being, fail to answer bail, possess methylamphetamine, traffic methylamphetamine, and possess a drug of dependence (unknown), as well as some driving offences which were all dealt with on 17 April this year. For this offending you were placed on a community corrections order (see Exhibit D on the plea).
8 Initially after arrest you were remanded in custody, but you were granted bail on the Court Integrated Services Program (CISP) on 24 July 2012. Until at least October 2012 you were compliant with your bail conditions and attempted to remain drug-free. However, by April this year you had twice been arrested in respect to drug offending which resulted in the appearance on 17 April this year at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court.
9 Your counsel accepted that the circumstances of your arrest and the drugs seized by police was but a snapshot of a day in your life as at July last year. By that time, you were addicted to methylamphetamine and had a longstanding gambling problem.
10 Your personal history is marked by instability and an enduring belief held by you that you did not fit in at school or at work. It was put on your behalf that being introduced to drugs and other drug users by your girlfriend at the age of nineteen seemed to alter your perception of yourself and you identified with this new lifestyle and the group of friends.
11 You were born to Turkish parents who migrated to Australia prior to your birth. You have a brother who is seven years older than you. Shortly after your birth, your mother and father separated because of your father’s gambling that resulted in the loss of most of the money that your family had amassed by their labours in Australia.
12 You had little, if any, contact with your father, he died when you were about ten years old. It was put on your behalf that you have always lacked an adult male figure in your life.
13 Your mother has always worked hard, in factories, as a cook and as a qualified interpreter. Plainly, she has had a hard life and has devoted all of her efforts to the maintenance and wellbeing of her family. I was told that she was a disciplinarian as you were growing up and that this characteristic was a source of conflict between you and her, and caused you to rebel against your mother.
14 You initially lived in Sydney and were educated at primary and secondary schools in the Parramatta area. You were unhappy at school because you had a pervading sense that you did not belong.
15 Your mother decided to move to Melbourne when you were in Year 9 and you came to live in Doncaster. You attended East Doncaster High School for Years 9 and 10. You then attended Box Hill TAFE where you studied subjects suitable for becoming a motor mechanic. You obtained an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic with Doncaster Ford, but left that position at the end of your second year. Again, you felt that you did not fit into this environment. You left home at about nineteen and lived with your girlfriend. It was at this stage that you were introduced to drugs, particularly methylamphetamine, and socialised with your girlfriend’s set of friends who were also drug users.
16 Tragically, this period of your life was the first time in your life that you felt that you belonged. You worked at a number of different jobs and saved enough money to return to education at the age of twenty, studying the VCAL at the Box Hill TAFE which you funded yourself. The purpose of the VCAL course was to prepare you for entry into the Australian Federal Police, an interest that you ultimately did not pursue.
17 In the years seventeen to twenty, you explored your interest in music, an interest from which you gained some sense of fulfilment. Unfortunately, you also developed an interest in gambling about this time.
18 Whilst at Box Hill TAFE, you worked sporadically because you were developing a significant drug problem, as well as spending time at Crown Casino gambling. You gambled at Crown Casino to such an extent that you were a Platinum Card holder in the Signature Club.
19 I was told that you had large wins and equally large losses, and this caused you to borrow money from time to time. Your drug abuse continued and by the time of your arrest, you were a user and a trafficker. By the packaging and the purity of the methylamphetamine you were capable of trafficking from street level to well above street level.
20 Since your arrest and release on bail, you have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety and you are prescribed the drug, Cymbalta, a serotonin reuptake inhibitor, used to treat major depression.
21 Since breaking up with your girlfriend when you were about twenty-one, you have resided with your mother, although you maintained another address in Victoria Street, Collingwood, at the time of your arrest. Your subsequent offending resulted in police raiding your mother’s home in Prahran, where they found approximately 10 grams of methylamphetamine, and this find resulted in you being charged with trafficking methylamphetamine, for which you were sentenced as part of a consolidation of a number of charges on 17 April this year.
22 Your counsel quite properly acknowledged that you were not a street dealer. She further conceded that an immediate term of imprisonment was the only appropriate sentencing disposition in the circumstances. She submitted that you should have a longer than normal parole period. (I note that this is a phrase that has been the subject of criticism but it is one that is readily understood.)
23 Your counsel placed emphasis on:
·your relative youth;
·your plea and the time at which it was entered;
·your lack of relevant prior convictions, although this aspect needed to be tempered by the fact of your subsequent offending; and
·your good prospects for rehabilitation because of your supportive family.
24 Drug trafficking is a serious offence. The circumstances in which you were found demonstrate that you were close to the source of manufacture. The drugs in your possession were packaged in ways that demonstrate that you could supply purchasers who were in the market for amounts ranging from a point (one-tenth of a gram) to one ounce, and even multiples of one ounce lots. When arrested, you were in possession of a Taser which was operable. Your offending is objectively serious.
25 I accept that you are remorseful. You have shamed your family and you feel this acutely. You pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and are entitled to the full benefits of your plea.
26 You are only twenty-four years old and your family will support you whilst you are in prison and upon your release. One must be guarded about your prospects for rehabilitation as you are addicted to methylamphetamine and you have a gambling problem. Unless and until each of these matters are properly addressed, you will always be at risk of re-offending. However I must do what I can by this sentence to assist in your rehabilitation.
27 Drugs are a cancer in our society and those who traffic in them must be punished. Your conduct must be denounced and you are an appropriate vehicle for the application of the principles of general and specific deterrence. Your drug addiction and gambling problems provide the reason why you engaged in the instant offences, but they are not mitigatory of your offending.
28 By this sentence I must punish you, publicly denounce your conduct and deter you and others from committing these kind of crimes. Taking into account the circumstances of the offences and their effects, with your personal circumstances and antecedents, endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the purposes of sentencing in a manner appropriate to you and your offending, I sentence you as follows on Indictment C11923241:
Charge 1 − you are convicted and sentenced to two and a half years’ imprisonment.
Charge 2 − you are convicted and fined $200.
Charge 3 − you are convicted and fined $500.
Charge 4 − you are convicted and fined $100.
Charge 5 − you are convicted and fined $100.
Charge 6 − you are convicted and fined $100.
Accordingly, in respect to the indictment, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two and a half years, and convicted and fined a total of $1000.
29 In respect to the related summary offences, for possessing prohibited weapons without exemption, you are sentenced to three months’ imprisonment, and I order one month of this sentence to be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed upon the indictment.
30 In respect of the other related summary offence of possessing property reasonably suspected of being the proceeds of crime, you are sentenced to one month’s imprisonment.
31 Accordingly, you are sentenced to a total effective sentence of 31 months’ imprisonment and I fix a non-parole period of 18 months’ imprisonment.
32 I declare that you have served 33 days by way of pre-sentence detention.
33 Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, but for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of four years’ imprisonment with a minimum term of three years’ imprisonment.
34 Counsel, in respect of the pre-sentence detention, is 33 days correct?
35 COUNSEL: Yes, Your Honour.
36 HIS HONOUR: Thank you. Now there are a number of ancillary orders that were sought from the Crown.
37 You may sit down, Mr Ciftci.
38 There is a disposal order in respect to the drug material. There is a forfeiture order in respect to the controlled weapons. There is a forfeiture order in respect to the tainted property which is the cash and pursuant to s.464ZF(B1) of the Crimes Act 1958 I order that the forensic sample taken from you be retained for placement on the database and I do so because of the seriousness of the circumstances of the offending that warrants this order and that the granting of the order is in the public interest. I'll pass those orders down.
39 The prisoner may be removed.
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