Director of Public Prosecutions v Corboy

[2018] VCC 1420

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

AT SHEPPARTON
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-00459

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

TALEAH CORBOY

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Shepparton
DATE OF HEARING:	29 August 2018
DATE OF SENTENCE:	29 August 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Corboy
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 1420

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Cases Cited:
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr M. Perry
For the Accused	Mr C. Morgan

1HIS HONOUR:   Taleah Rosemary Corboy, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of - you can stay seated, that is all right.  Trafficking in a drug of dependence.  That crime carries a maximum penalty of 15 years' imprisonment.  You are 20 years of age and were 18 years of age at the time of the offending.  Accordingly, you were very young for this jurisdiction and for this type of offending at this level.  You pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity and I accept that you have displayed appropriate remorse.  You must also of course get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty. 

2You have very little in the way of prior convictions. There have been subsequent matters which simply concern your problems with drugs. Firstly pursuant to s.464 of the Crimes Act, I make an order that you provide a saliva sample for DNA purposes.  That order having been made, I must advise you that should you refuse to provide the same, police may use reasonable force to take it from you and that order is made and handed down. 

3The offending occurred from your point of view between basically September, October and mid-November of 2016.  The Crown summary has been exhibited and accordingly, I do not need to go into the matter in any detail.  You were a part of and not an insignificant part of a very serious trafficking organisation.  There are those with far more deeper roles than you, who I will be sentencing tomorrow.  But you, I would accept, under the influence of one woman, Bourne, became her right-hand woman, if I can put it that way.  You regarded yourself as the secretary, as her accountant.  As all sorts of things, you collected moneys for her, you conveyed drugs and all in all, as I said, played a significant part in a very significant drug trafficking operation.

4I do not think I need to go into any more detail than that, other than to say that the offending is obviously serious.  Calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, as well as denunciation and appropriate punishment. 

5The circumstances are that there has now been a delay of some extended period of time. I am not attributing that to anybody's fault.  It simply means that had I been able to deal with you back when you were 18 and taken the view that a custodial sentence was appropriate, I would have given you Youth Justice.  But now that you are 20, it is still technically open.  But the difficulty insofar as that is concerned is that after your arrest, you spent 125 days on remand in adult custody.  I doubt whether Youth Justice would now accept you in any event.  I make it clear I would not have sentenced you to adult custody no matter what. 

6The effect of that custody on you, I accept, has been dramatic and you found those circumstances very difficult.  It would be cruel, you now having been bailed for some period of time and on the face of it at least, doing your best, to return you to such an adult custodial environment.  However the matter still requires an appropriate sentence.  After discussion with counsel, what I have determined to do is give you what is known as a combination sentence.  That is, that I will be sentencing you to the 125 days imprisonment.  And I will be directing that 125 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence. 

7You will then be placed on a community corrections order.  It will be for a period of two years, and it will be with conviction, which is a punishment in itself.  And it will be with the conditions that have been outlined by corrections that have deemed you to be acceptable.  That could be seen as to be a relatively lenient sentence in the overall circumstances of this case.  But it seems to me that the dominating factor in your circumstances are your age and the undoubted influence that the co-accused Bourne had over you. 

8You pleaded guilty, as I said, at the earliest opportunity.  That plea was accepted in February of 2018.  Your history is that you grew up in Myrtleford with an intact family.  You went to Year 10.  By the age of 16, you were assistant manager of a local bakery and you had another job at the local supermarket.  And together with your father, there had been a rural property purchased at Lake Rowan.  Then moved to Wangaratta when the bakery business in Myrtleford was sold and you were planning to study community service. 

9Unfortunately in around 2015/2016, you met the co-accused, Brown and Bourne through mutual friends in Wangaratta.  You then engaged in this frolic of trafficking and again, I do not need to go into detail. 

10Since your arrest you have done the 125 days' of adult imprisonment, which I have no doubt has had a salutary effect upon you.  Upon your release, you are still struggling with the use of drugs and would have to be regarded as "vulnerable".  You still have the support of your parents.  You are now living in Yarrawonga with you grandmother and caring for her.  You found, because of your age, Narcotics Anonymous, difficult to deal with and it was known throughout the town, the circumstances, that is, the town of Myrtleford, the circumstances in which you were living.  I think that basically sums it up. 

11The Court of Appeal in the case of Toumngeun, Neave J said"

"As this court recognised in the DPP v Leech, it's particularly important that this court should not devalue or deny the right of a sentencing judge to act mercifully in the case where it seems to the judge to be an instance where an opportunity for reaffirmation of an offender ought be grasped.  That, after all, may be a decision which rebounds very much to the benefit of the community."

12I think this is exactly that sort of situation that Her Honour Neave J was considering.

13The prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you.  You do not have a long criminal history.  You are still young.  You have still got support.  The risk of you re-offending has been determined as being high.  I can understand why that is, but I think the community interest and I think your interest is best served by the disposition which I am going to impose.

14As you would clearly understand, were you to breach the community corrections order by offending of this nature, the consequences would be somewhat dramatic and you will undergo that disposition being aware of that.

15Accordingly, you are sentenced to imprisonment for a period of 125 days.  A community corrections order to continue upon the cessation of the imprisonment, which will be today and it will be for two years, with the conviction and the matters that I have referred to.

16It is a difficult situation here, as far as s.6AAA is concerned, because I would not have given you adult gaol.  But what I will say is, that but for you plea of guilty, the reality of the situation is, I would have given you 18 months' YTC. 

17All right, have you got that?  Yes, all right, we will just get you to sign that.  You would not mind going with her, Mr Morgan, thanks very much.

18MR MORGAN:  Thank you, Your Honour.

19HIS HONOUR:  Well that CCO is made.  I simply say, so far as the sentence is concerned, that parity is obviously an issue throughout this matter, but your age and your relative lack of prior convictions distinguishes you, in my view, clearly from the others. 

20All right, no other orders I need to make? 

21MR PERRY:  No, Your Honour.

22HIS HONOUR:  Anyone?  No?  All right. 

23MR MORGAN:  Yes.

24HIS HONOUR:  All right.  You are on a CCO, right?  Your gaol time is done, but you are on a CCO for the next two years and you have really got to understand, if you get brought back for something like this, it is going to be that door again.  All right?  Seriously, you just cannot risk it,  all right?  So look after yourself and hopefully it all works out. 

25Yes, thanks, Mr Morgan.

26MR MORGAN:  Thank you, Your Honour. 

27HIS HONOUR:  Yes, 10 o'clock tomorrow. 

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