Director of Public Prosecutions v Collins
[2023] VCC 1196
•11 July 2023
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 22-01306
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| AIDEN COLLINS |
---
JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE CARMODY |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 11 July 2023 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 11 July 2023 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Collins |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2023] VCC 1196 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---
Subject: CRIMINAL LAW – Sentence
Catchwords: Attempted armed robbery – possess drug of dependence – youthful offender – drug-affected offending
Cases Cited:Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169; R v Mills (1998) 4 VR 235; Boulton v The Queen [2014] VSCA 342
Sentence:Convicted and ordered to serve a Community Corrections Order for a period of two years.
---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr T. Crouch | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Ms N. Grunwald | Peter Lunt Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
1Aiden Collins, today, 11 July 2023, at the County Court at Melbourne you pleaded guilty to the two charges on Indictment No. N10851424:
Charge 1 was a charge of attempted armed robbery. This charge has a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.
Charge 2 is possess a drug of dependence. This charge has a maximum penalty in the circumstances of your offending of one year imprisonment.
2You have no prior convictions or subsequent criminal history.
The circumstances of your offending
3The prosecution tendered a Prosecution Opening for Plea dated 8 February 2023. It was Exhibit “A” and it was read into the record of the court.
4Your attempted armed robbery was on a 35-year-old worker at the Subway store in Beetham Parade, Rosanna. On 1 May 2022 at approximately 9.30 am, you attended near the Subway in Beetham Parade in a vehicle owned by Mr Danilov. You were friends with Mr Danilov. You parked the car in an alleyway between Rosanna Road and Beetham Parade. You then walked towards Subway, paced outside the front of the store for approximately two minutes before you entered, no doubt you were trying to get up the courage to do what you were about to do.
5Your victim was working in the store alone at that time. Upon entering, you then again paced up and down a couple of times in front of the counter before walking behind the counter and towards the till into the staff area. You produced a knife from your pocket and held it towards your victim and made a demand for the money. You said to your victim 'Open the till, open the till, I'm going to hurt you'.
6Your victim was in fear for her safety and attempted to comply with your demands. She then told you that she did not have the key for the till, and it was out the back. You said, 'Come out the back with me and give me the money'. As you moved closer to her, the victim then grabbed two knives from the sandwich bar in the store, pointed them towards you and chased you out of the store. You then ran to the white Corolla, dumped your knife, leaving on foot and running away.
7You were arrested a short distance from the store and readily admitted to your offending to the police. The car you were in was searched and your wallet and a snap lock bag containing four tablets of Clozapine were located.
8At the police interview, you made the following admissions:
(a)Your intention in committing the offending was “to get money”.
(b)Earlier on the day you had had “around one sheet”, i.e., 100 milligrams of Seroquel.
(c)“[I] got grumpy, I guess, and then walked down into the store, pulled out a knife and threatened her”.
(d)The victim chased you out of the store.
(e)You threw the knife and the clothing over a fence; and
(f)You identified the pills that were in Mr Danilov's vehicle as being your own.
9You stated that you had a medical prescription for the drugs found in your wallet, but you would need to find it at home.
10You were then shown CCTV of the Subway store and you identified yourself in it. It is a comment from me, but in the cold light of day, you must realise that you are just no good at armed robbery.
Your personal circumstances
11You were 22 at the time of the offences, you are 23 now. You are a young offender and have no prior convictions. You were born in Melbourne but raised in Castlemaine. You are the eldest child of three children in your family. Your father is a teacher, your mother is a physiotherapist. When you were six years old, your parents separated. At the age of nine, your mother moved together with your two siblings back to Coburg. Your father also moved back to Melbourne later and when you were 17 you moved to live with your father. You still live with your father and your stepmother and younger sister.
12Your education was completed at trade school to Year 11. You have described to Ms Cidoni that you were not overly academic but had mastered the basics. Once you left school, you commenced work in a factory making blinds. This job lasted for six months. In 2020 you commenced work as a furniture removalist until January of 2023 when your boss caught you in a state of being drug affected. You were suspended from work, and never return to work, as you have not worked since that time.
13Your real problem is drugs. You started early. At age 12 you were using cannabis. At age 13 you would smoke methylamphetamine and as an 18-year-old you were injecting that drug into your body. At age 15 you also tried heroin and by the age of 19 you were using heroin intravenously as well.
14For your drug problem you have completed a CISP program on 25 July 2022. You have been through Odyssey House, Curran House and De Paul House. All of these places were short stays, you found them too challenging, so you left.
15You are now having counselling from Jason Bowman from Addiction Solutions in combination with Suboxone treatment supervised by your general practitioner, Dr Owen Harris in Lygon Street Medical Centre.
16You continue to live with your father. I take your personal circumstances into account when sentencing you.
17Your victim was given the opportunity to make a victim impact statement but decided not to.
Sentencing Considerations
18The basic purposes for which a court may impose a sentence are just punishment, deterrence both specific and general, rehabilitation and denunciation of your actions and the protection of the community. In sentencing you I must have regard to a range of factors such as the seriousness of your offending, your culpability for it and your personal circumstances. I am also required to balance the interests of the community in denouncing your criminal conduct with the interests of the community in seeking to ensure as far as possible that you as an offender are rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
19I am also required to take into account current sentencing practices in fixing your sentence. That enquiry is directed particularly but not exhaustively to the kinds of sentences imposed in comparable cases and the statistics for those sentences. I have considered the statistics and the current sentencing practices, mindful that each case must be considered in the light of its own particular circumstances and many of the cases would be distinguishable from your case as indeed they are from one another. Of course, current sentencing practices is only one of the considerations I must take into account.
20You have pleaded guilty to these charges. A plea of guilty was indicated in circumstances that I would say are relatively early.
21Your plea does have the utilitarian value of allowing for the orderly and effective administration of justice, there is a certainty of outcome and the resolution of the substantive issues raised by your offending.
22Your plea allows the preservation of court and police resources to deal with other matters and your plea vindicates the public confidence set up in the legal process to protect the community.
23Your plea is also a clear acknowledgment by you that you accept responsibility for your criminal behaviour on this occasion, which of course you did at the time of your arrest.
24Your plea also recognised you are willing to facilitate the course of justice and I accept that your plea to these charges indicates and demonstrates remorse on your part.
25Your plea has relieved your victim of the stress and inconvenience of giving evidence at committal or trial.
26Pleas of guilty also have further utilitarian value because the plea is given at a time of effectively the COVID pandemic. You have not sought to delay the finalisation of these charges by conducting a trial at some indeterminate date in the future. The Worboyes discount as it is called applies to your sentencing process.
27You are a youthful offender. It is a principle of sentencing law when a young offender such as yourself is to be sentenced, the sentencing disposition should be tailored to take into account all other sentencing considerations to promote your rehabilitation. This approach serves the interests of the individual offender and the community in general.
28In the case of Mills, the three propositions about sentencing youthful offenders are set out; Firstly, youth of an offender, particularly a first offender such as yourself should be a primary consideration of a sentencing court where the matters properly arise. The second proposition is in the case of a youthful offender; rehabilitation is usually far more important than general deterrence as a sentencing consideration. This is because punishment may in fact lead to further offending. Thus, for example, individualised treatment focusing on the rehabilitation is to be preferred. In short, rehabilitation benefits the community as well as yourself, the offender. And the third proposition is that the youthful offender is not to be sent to adult prison if such a disposition can be avoided especially if the offender is beginning to appreciate the effects of your past criminality. I accept that is the case with you.
29The benchmark of what is serious and just, defines adult imprisonment may be quite high in a case of a youthful offender where the youthful offender has not previously been incarcerated, a shorter term of imprisonment may be justified.
30You have no prior convictions, your offending occurred in circumstances where you had been on a methylamphetamine binge and had taken Seroquel. You have had a long battle with drug abuse commencing at the age of 12. More recently you have been to Odyssey House and other detoxification facilities. You told Ms Cidoni you are still using heroin intermittently. You are currently on a Suboxone treatment prescribed by Dr Harris, your GP, and you also have assistance from Mr Bowman.
31As previously stated, drug addiction is your problem and is the basis for your criminality on this occasion. Your drug addiction is not an excuse for your criminal behaviour, it is causally related to your criminality.
32Your counsel has submitted a community corrections order was the appropriate penalty in your case. I considered the principles of Boulton's case and had you assessed for a CCO. You have been assessed as being suitable for a community corrections order. That of course is not the end of the matter.
33Your offending is serious. The charge of attempted armed robbery carries a maximum penalty of 20 years' imprisonment. The seriousness of your offending is marked by the following matters:
a) Your victim was working alone in the Subway store, that is, she was a soft target.
b) You held your knife up to your victim when you demanded the money from her.
c) You attempted to disguise yourself, I might add very poorly.
d) Your planning was very basic and could be described as an opportunistic type of offence.
e) The offence was over a short period of time because your victim chased you out of the store; and
f) You were easily caught and readily admitted your offending to the police.
34I assess this offending as low level for this type of offending.
35Your prospects of rehabilitation are guarded as they are directly related to your ability to control and overcome your addiction to illicit substances. If you relapse to drug use, you will come back to the criminal justice system repeatedly with the inevitable consequence of what I describe as 'catch and release' punctuated by ever increasing terms of imprisonment. In short, it is up to you which path you choose to follow, drugs or no drugs.
36You have very dedicated parents and a wider family support which are standing by you in these circumstances. No doubt over the course of your life, as in your drug using life, you have caused them incredible heartache. They are still here; they will not always be here if you re-offend.
37The sentencing principles of general and specific deterrence, protection of the community, rehabilitation and just punishment dictate that in your case it is appropriate for you to be given a chance to be punished and rehabilitated through the imposition of a community corrections order.
38Would you stand please?
39On Charge 1, you are convicted and ordered to serve a community corrections order for a period of two years. The conditions of that order are as follows: -
1) You are to be supervised.
2) You are to perform 200 hours of unpaid community work.
3) You attend to drug treatment and rehabilitation as directed by Corrections.
4) You attend to and receive mental health treatment as directed by Corrections.
5) You are to attend a judicial monitoring, that is, you return here so I can check up on how you are progressing on 23 October 2023 at 9.30 am.
6) I declare that the hours you spend in either drug rehabilitation or mental treatment are to be accredited to the unpaid hours of work pursuant s48(CA) of the Sentencing Act. I make that last condition to encourage you to partake in drug rehabilitation and your mental health treatment, it is for your benefit.
40On Charge 2, you are convicted and fined $500.00.
41But for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to 12 months' imprisonment, just a straight sentence. All right.
42OFFENDER: Okay, thank you, Your Honour.
43HIS HONOUR: That is all right. Now, there will be an order will be prepared and I will hand that to your counsel. She can explain it to you and if you agree to it, you can sign it and I will sign it. Thank you, just give it to him.
44MS GRUNWALD: As Your Honour pleases.
45MR CROUCH: Your Honour, there was also an application for a disposal order.
46HIS HONOUR: Oh yes, sorry, thank you.
47MS GRUNWALD: That is by consent, Your Honour.
48HIS HONOUR: Thank you for the reminder. I have signed it, it is there, the disposal order is signed, thank you. Otherwise, everything covered Mr Prosecutor?
49MR CROUCH: Yes, Your Honour.
50HIS HONOUR: Thank you.
51ASSOCIATE: Your Honour, I will hand the community corrections order to defence counsel.
52HIS HONOUR: Yes, thank you.
53MS GRUNWALD: May I approach, Your Honour?
54HIS HONOUR: Absolutely, yes, thank you.
55All right, okay, your address is now 15 David Street in Preston. Is that correct?
56OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
57HIS HONOUR: Yes, thank you.
58You understand you are attending at the Reservoir Corrections Centre which is in 909 High Street in Reservoir within two working days?
59OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
60HIS HONOUR: Yes, thank you. I will get that copied and I will give a couple of copies to your counsel, one of them is for you so you can stick it up on the inside door of your cupboard where your clothes are so that every day when you get up and get dressed you have got a reminder.
61OFFENDER: Okay, thank Your Honour.
62HIS HONOUR: Of what you have got to comply with, otherwise you come back before me.
63OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour, thank you.
64HIS HONOUR: And that will not be pretty.
65OFFENDER: Thank you, Your Honour, I understand.
66HIS HONOUR: Now, I revved you up earlier on today and I meant every word I said.
67OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
68HIS HONOUR: And I hope you take some of it on board for your own benefit.
69OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
70HIS HONOUR: But also, for the benefit of these two people sitting here.
71OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
72HIS HONOUR: At the same time, I want to encourage you to keep going. To deal with drug addiction is a very, very hard task. It is a one day at a time task and only you can do it.
73OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour, I will try my very best to keep seeking help and try and do better and stay out of trouble.
74HIS HONOUR: Yes, yes, you must do that and ultimately inside, inside yourself, you have to stop using it, it is killing you.
75OFFENDER: Yes.
76HIS HONOUR: Counsel, thank you very much for your help. In this case everything was in front of me when it needed to be. Thank you. Just a minute, Mum and Dad, stick with him.
‑ ‑ ‑
0
2
0