Director of Public Prosecutions v Corbet
[2022] VCC 1004
•24 June 2022
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 21-01020
CR-21-01022
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| DANE CORBET |
| ENGIN GEMCI |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE JOHNS |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 29 April 2022, 20 May 2022, 10 June 2022. |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 24 June 2022 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Corbet & Anor |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2022] VCC 1004 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Criminal Law Sentence
Catchwords: Co-offenders – Extortion – Intentionally causing injury – Common assault – Plea of guilty – Delay
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)
Cases Cited: R v Nikodjevic [2004] VSCA 222.
Sentence:Corbet: two years and six months community corrections order
Gemci: 266 days imprisonment with a one year and 6 months community corrections order---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr A. Albert | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For Accused Corbet | Mr L. Hartnett | Garde-Wilson Lawyers |
For Accused Gemci | Mr A. Malik | Valos Black & Associates |
HIS HONOUR:
1Mr Corbet, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of common assault, and a charge of extortion with a threat to inflict injury.
2Engin Gemci, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of common assault, two charges of intentionally causing injury as well as extortion with a threat to inflict injury.
3The maximum penalty for extortion is 15 years' imprisonment. For common assault it is five years' imprisonment and for intentionally causing injury it is
10 years' imprisonment. You have each admitted prior convictions. The circumstances of your offending are set out in the summary of prosecution opening, dated 22 March 2022, which was Exhibit A on each of your pleas. That summary forms part of these reasons for sentence.Circumstances of Offending
4In much briefer terms, you, Mr Corbet, flew to Melbourne, together with
co-offender Peter Fiore, on 12 September 2019. You met up with co-offenders, Mr Gemci and Bochrinis in Melbourne. You attended various premises as a group and you were attempting to locate your victim, Suresh Krishnan. You, Mr Corbet, had a financial grievance with Mr Krishnan, in the vicinity of $20,000, although what was ultimately demanded from Mr Krishnan was a far greater sum.5You located Mr Krishnan when you arrived at RTunes, a car mechanic workshop located at Factory 11, High Tech Place, Rowville. You both entered the premises in company with Mr Bochrinis. Mr Fiore remained outside initially.
6You both encountered your victim, being the target of your extortion, on the stairs. Mr Krishnan was coming down the stairs as you entered, he extended his hand to you Mr Corbet, and you Mr Corbet, grabbed his hand, pulled him towards you, struck him to the back of the head and then punched him to the face and head knocking him down the stairs and onto the floor of the workshop. And you Mr Gemci was complicit in that assault. You, Mr Gemci stood over Mr Krishnan has he lay on the floor. You kicked him while you, Mr Corbet, watched on and moved in closer. You pointed your finger at Mr Krishnan, whilst you, Mr Gemci, held him by the hair, you each kicked him again.
7Mr Bochrinis and Fiore were present also supporting the assault. Eventually, your victim was allowed to stand, and you Mr Corbet told him to come outside and talk. You told him that he owed you $80,000 and that he needed to pay it. The breakdown of what you told him he owed and why, appears at
paragraph 17 of the opening. Whilst Mr Corbet was talking to Mr Krishnan, you Mr Gemci came over and punched him to the head with sufficient force to knock him to the ground and you split his lip severely. He bled heavily. That is the first of the intentionally causing injury charges you have pleaded guilty to.8You, Mr Corbet, told Mr Krishnan that he owed $80,000, that the other men were bikies, he could not run away and you would burn down his factory. You, Mr Gemci, further assaulted Mr Krishnan moments later by kicking him in the leg, with sufficient force to knock him to the ground. Mr Krishnan went to a desk to write down information that had been demanded of him. You, Mr Gemci were pounding the desk, you were both present, and threatening Mr Krishnan. You, Mr Gemci threatened you would burn the factory down and kill his family. You told Krishnan to write down his address and his parents' address. You,
Mr Gemci, struck Krishnan again with a solid punch to his right eye, causing him to double over. He was thereafter unable to see out of his right eye. And that is intentionally causing injury, Charge 5.9After your party left, Mr Krishnan was taken to hospital. His split lip required plastic surgery. The vision in his left eye was impaired. He had abrasions on his cheek and bruising. You, Mr Corbet returned to Perth the following day with Mr Fiore. You were arrested and charged in Perth on 14 October. You declined to be interviewed. You, Mr Gemci, were interviewed by police on 25 September, and made no comment.
Victim Impact Statement
10A victim impact statement and accompanying medical and psychological material was tendered on the plea. The victim impact statement was read out in court. The impact upon your victim from the ordeal was severe. It is not possible to dissect the impacts upon your victim, with reference to the criminality engaged in by each of you, but it is possible to observe that your criminality Mr Gemci, went further than Mr Corbet's and so too did the impact of your actions upon your victim.
11I take into account the very severe impact upon your victim, and I am now referring to both of you, and the serious consequences that are played for him, in sentencing each of you.
Objective Seriousness of Offending.
12This is a serious example of a serious offence. You, Mr Corbet, were the author of much of what occurred to your victim at his workplace. It was you who had the financial grievance with Mr Krishnan, and it is plain that you enlisted Mr Gemci and at least Mr Bochrinis to help you threaten, intimidate, and assault Mr Krishnan. The object was to put him in sufficient fear, so that he would come up with the enormous sum you were demanding of him. It was vicious, barbaric and lawless conduct, it was also cowardly. You, Mr Corbet, had to rely on the presence of Mr Gemci and Mr Bochrinis, in order to intimidate and threaten Mr Krishnan.
13Mr Gemci, I was told you were the chauffeur. You enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to assist Mr Corbet in his extortion, once that was underway. And your aggression and violence and intention to cause injury on two occasions, takes your criminality beyond that of Mr Corbet's. If this were a negligence case, Mr Corbet might be liable for your actions for 'letting the lion out of the cage' so to speak, to use the euphemism. But in terms of criminality, the indictment before me makes it plain, that you Mr Gemci, to be sentenced for criminality and its impacts beyond the scope of the case against Mr Corbet.
14It is perhaps your low functioning and desperate circumstances which fuelled your desire to please and impress Mr Corbet and maybe others, who may have appeared to you to be somewhat of importance and means, perhaps due to the association with Mr Fiore. Mr Corbet on this occasion, you seem to revel in the American gangster mimicry of the crime. It was a despicable and shameful way to go about pursuing your financial grievance. It must be condemned and denounced by me in clear terms. I must impose sentences on both of you that deter others from seeking to extract perceived debts with gross violence and intimidation.
Personal Circumstances
Dane Corbet
15Turning to your personal circumstances, starting with you Mr Corbet. You were born in Perth. Your parents separated before your birth. You have two older siblings through that relationship, but your parents remarried and each of those remarried partnerships produced two more children. It was noted before me, and I think it is a relevant matter, that none of your six siblings have been in trouble with police or the courts.
16You report a loving, functional, familial environment growing up, and you indicated through your counsel that you regret the shame you have brought upon them. I accept, based on the materials before me, including the extensive reference material and the submissions made on your behalf, that you are appropriately remorseful for your conduct and the impacts upon your victim.
17It was noted that in your early development, there were concerns in - and indeed diagnosis in relation to attention deficit disorder and oppositional defiant disorder. These matters have some relevance to the sentencing exercise before me, as they're critical to the setting in which you grew up and developed and at some point in time, gravitation towards negative influences, illicit substance use and abuse, and wrapped up with that, appears to be an issue of low self-esteem. All of which help explain to some degree how you found yourself committing this serious criminal act in this city.
18You attended St Mark's Secondary School to Year 10, and then completed education at Como Secondary High School to Year 11. School was difficult for you, and I was told that you were mixing with the wrong crowd and I've touched on some of the background and formative aspects of your personality that may have contributed to that.
19You became a hard worker and you worked in the construction field in bricklaying, which is a demanding trade. You have had your own business as a private contractor in the past, but I was told that in recent times you have been working as an employee and earning a good wage, but principally, because of the uncertainty surrounding your court matters, I was told you had been prescribed medicinal cannabis for back pain, which is a legacy of your vocation as a bricklayer.
20You have been married previously, divorced in 2019. You are presently in a stable relationship I was told, with a positive pro-social hard-working young woman. You have close links with your family and you are supported by your family and it has been clear to me through the reference material, that that will continue. You own your own home in Perth, you have a mortgage with that and are paying that off regularly, and I regard that as a protective factor and a factor that supports what was submitted to me as solid prospects of rehabilitation.
21Matters in mitigation in your case, Mr Corbet, include the period of delay, which is now approaching three years. And I accept that that is a substantial mitigatory factor. I was told of one pending matter you have, but I am not able to form any views about that. But essentially, as I understand it, you have continued to work and reside in Perth, in that - during that period of delay, and that is a matter that I take into account. I was told you have continued to work hard over the course of the last, almost three years, and you have been on stringent bail conditions during that time, which is also a matter I have regard to in assessing your prospects and assessing the effects of delay. You have had this matter hanging over your head for that length of time and in the R v Nikodjevic[1] sense I take that into account as well, as one of the effects of delay.
[1]R v Nikodjevic [2004] VSCA 222
22Your plea of guilty. You are entitled to a significant discount for your plea of guilty. Particularly, during this time when we are still in the pandemic and we are still dealing with criminal trial lists that are in a state of crisis, there is a significant utilitarian value to your plea of guilty. I also consider that your plea of guilty is reflective of remorse. Whilst you do have criminal history it is limited and on my assessment, not particularly relevant to the sentencing considerations, I am dealing with.
Engine Gemci
23Turning to you Mr Gemci, and your personal circumstances. You were 47 at the time of the offending, and you are now 50. You were born in Turkey and came to Melbourne with your mother and brother at aged four. Your father had arrived two years earlier in this country. You have one older brother. Your father worked as a labourer during his working life, maintaining railway lines. When you were aged six, I was told that you left - your family left and moved to Adelaide. Sorry, I'll start that again. When you were six, your father left the family and moved to Adelaide with a new partner. Your father I was told was a violent man, and you were exposed to the trauma of family violence during your tender years and your formative years and your childhood. I will not go into the details therein, but I was given some detailed accounts in relation to that.
24Your mother worked as a cleaner often working long hours, you and your brother became self-sufficient at an early age. You grew up in difficult
socio-economic circumstances and financial circumstances. These matters and the trauma you were exposed to, have had an effect upon you and your development.25You attended Kensington Primary School, before moving onto Essendon Technical School. You left in Year 9, following some behavioural difficulties. You took up employment at 15 as a butcher's apprentice at Preston Market. You completed that apprenticeship and continued to work as a qualified butcher. At one stage, you became a greyhound trainer, and you had worked sufficiently hard to purchase a five-acre farm to train the dogs and raise your family.
26You have three children to your former partner and based on what I was told, your children are a credit to you. And I mentioned during the plea hearing how you have let them down and at your age, you really need to take stock of what sort of role model you are going to be in the years ahead. You have a son who is an electrician, another son who is a roofing plumber and then a daughter who is still at secondary school, but is showing considerable ability in the sporting field as a footballer. I was told you have a close relationship with your three children.
27There is a financial history in relation to you, Mr Gemci, particularly in relation to a business venture and borrowing against your house and then those financial difficulties are coinciding with the failure of your 20-year marriage. Given your background and those matters I have referred to in relation to your early development and your early life, it is understandable that having achieved what you have, despite those setbacks in terms of business and family, that your resilience failed you and you were vulnerable to a level of psychological collapse when business, home and marriage fell apart.
28I was told of an increase in illicit substance use. You had been engaged in what was submitted to me as party drug use from a young age. It seems to be that a combination of continued party drug use perhaps catching up with you after a number of years, and the pressures, psychological pressures of the financial and marital failure, saw you hit a point where your drug use was out of control and impacting on your life and find you in the situation you now are, in the dock, having spent almost nine months in custody, in relation to this matter.
29I received a psychological report from Psychologist, Gina Cidoni on your behalf and I accept the contents therein. Your cognitive ability is assessed as in the borderline range, and I accept Ms Cidoni's opinion that the deficit in your executive functioning can translate into a struggle for you to regulate your emotions and aggression. Substance abuse would no doubt exacerbate that factor.
30I accept the submission of your counsel that you became involved in a dispute that had nothing to do with you, and your actions of violence are consistent with your inability to manage your aggression. In all the circumstances, which included your drug use, your low functioning and the strain due to financial and relationship pressures in your life. In your case mitigating factors of a significant plea of guilty and what I accept is your genuine remorse apply.
31In your case the fact of delay is also a significant factor in mitigation. As I have said almost three years' delay during which time, you have served almost nine months in imprisonment and then been on bail for two years. And in your case, I take into account the effects of delay, that have seen you essentially remain on a law abiding and stricter path in your life, for the past two years, whilst you have been on bail.
32As I have with Mr Corbet, I accept that you have good prospects of rehabilitation. You have a criminal history which is - had some more relevance that Mr Corbet's but can still be described as limited. In your case, I have taken into account in particular, that your period on remand was at least in part, during the emergency management period due to the pandemic.
33Other Factors in Mitigation
34In your case Mr Corbet, I had you assessed for a CCO initially. The circumstances of your offending leave it open to me to impose a gaol term upon you. A head sentence and a non-parole period are within the range for your offending. But taking all of the matters into account, the circumstances of the offence and the matters in mitigation, I have concluded that a lengthy Community Corrections Order, with punitive and therapeutic conditions, is sufficient in your case, to meet the sentencing considerations of general and specific deterrence and appropriate denunciation of your crime.
35That conclusion, also involves a degree of leniency and mercy, given a number of features including, what I've referred to as your limited history. My acceptance of the psychological material in relation to ADHD, oppositional defiance disorder, diagnosis from a young age, and low self-esteem, are matters which in the experience of the court, are matters which do often lead a young person to gravitate towards negative influences and drug use.
36The delay in the matter of almost three years which I have referred to. Notwithstanding, what I was told of a pending matter, the fact that you domiciled in Western Australia, the court has to sentence you, particularly on the basis of someone who comes from another state and then commits a crime here, in relation to - I take that into account, that you are not excused from punishment, because you have come from another state and committed an offence here. But the fact of the matter is, that any gaol term to be served here would be in the circumstances where you don't have that familial support that you do in Western Australia. So, that is a matter I have taken into account.
37Your plea of guilty and the significance of it, your remorse which I accept is genuine, your work history and strong prospects of rehabilitation. And also the fact that the Community Corrections Order I will impose will be more onerous upon you than it would for someone ordinarily domiciled in this state, because it will require you to reside here until you complete the work hours or until you can arrange a transfer. I understand that as things currently sit, work hours cannot be transferred.
38Mr Gemci, you have served almost nine months on remand in relation to this matter, and as I have said part of that period on remand was during the early days of the pandemic lockdown and in emergency management, and I will take that into account. You have now been on bail for two years or thereabouts. Notwithstanding the serious aspects of your criminality, I have concluded that general deterrence, specific deterrence and denunciation can be met in your case, by the imposition of a combination sentence that does not see you
re-enter custody.39In respect of each of you, I have had regard to parity and disparity as it applies between each of you and other co-offenders, I have applied the principle of totality. I had each of you assessed as I have indicated and I will not refer to the Community Corrections Order assessments, but I have considered those and relied on some aspects of those assessments.
Sentence
40Mr Corbet, I sentence you as follows.
41On Charges 1, common assault and Charge 2, extortion, you are sentenced to a Community Corrections Order of two and a half years' duration, with conviction. The special conditions are 125 hours of community work, supervision, drug treatment and rehabilitation. Up to 25 hours of treatment can be credited towards work hours.
42This is an aggregate sentence based upon the charges before me, being part of the one criminal episode.
43Pursuant to s 6AAA, were it not for your plea of guilty, I would have sentenced you to a period of three years imprisonment, with a two-year non-parole period.
44Mr Gemci, in your case, I am also imposing an aggregate sentence due to all the charges before me, forming part of the one criminal episode.
45On the five charges before me, two of common assault, two of intentionally causing injury and extortion, you are sentenced to a combination sentence. The imprisonment part of that combination sentence is 266 days' imprisonment, in combination with an 18-month Community Corrections Order, the special conditions of which are that you perform 70 hours of community work, that you are assessed for alcohol and drug treatment and rehabilitation, you are assessed for mental health treatment and rehabilitation and that you are assessed for offence pacific program and attend such program as directed, and that you are also subject to supervision. In your case, up to 30 hours of therapeutic treatment hours can be credited towards the work hours.
46In your case, Mr Gemci, pursuant to s 6AAA, were it not for your plea of guilty I would have imposed a total effective sentence of four years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of two and a half years. Are there any other orders that I am required to make Mr Albert?
47MR ALBERT: No, Your Honour.
48HIS HONOUR: All right, well those, in each of your cases, starting with you
Mr Corbet, do you consent to the Community Corrections Order?49OFFENDER CORBET: Yes, Your Honour.
50HIS HONOUR: All right, well that's going to be prepared and your signature will be required on that and then I'll sign it. Mr Gemci, do you consent to the Community Corrections Order I've imposed on you as part of the combination sentence?
51OFFENDER GEMCI: Yes I do.
52HIS HONOUR: All right, well that will also be prepared. That might take a few moments, so I might just stand down and wait out the back while that's done and your counsel are free to approach their clients and explain the ramifications of the sentence. And then I'll return for the signature.
(Short adjournment.)
53HIS HONOUR: All right, I've got each of the Corrections orders in front of me now and I'll sign those. I forgot to tell each of you, that if you don't comply with the conditions, or you breach them by further offending, then you can expect to be back before me for breached proceedings, and possibility of resentence. All right, is there anything else?
54MR HARTNETT: No.
55HIS HONOUR: No.
56MR MALIK: If Your Honour perhaps you could just formally declare the 266 days.
57HIS HONOUR: I meant to do that, yes, sorry.
58MR MALIK: Yes.
59HIS HONOUR: I declare the 266 days pursuant to s 18 of the Sentencing Act in relation to Mr Gemci, so that the period imposed is already served.
60MR MALIK: As Your Honour pleases.
61HIS HONOUR: All right, now Mr Corbet, understands that of course this order will require you to remain in this state and no doubt find work et cetera for some time. Bricklaying in a Melbourne winter is probably a lot harder than in Perth winter. But you committed the offence here, and if you are finding it hard, just remember what the alternative is.
62OFFENDER CORBET: Yes.
63HIS HONOUR: All right, thank you.
64MR HARTNETT: Thank you, Your Honour.
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