Director of Public Prosecutions v Do

[2016] VCC 601

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

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 15-01759

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

HIEU TRUNG DO

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	13 May 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Do
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 601

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 D. Hannan
For the Accused	Ms O. Trumbl

HIS HONOUR: 

1Hieu Trung Do, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of cultivation of cannabis, and one charge of theft of electricity. 

2The cultivation is said to have occurred between August and October of 2014.  Those crimes carry maximum penalties of 15 years' and ten years' respectively. 

3You were 20 years of age at the time of the offending and upon apprehension, were placed into adult custody for approximately four and a half months. 
I accept from your counsel that that has been an extremely salutary experience for you.  You have no prior convictions and you have no matters pending.  You were ultimately bailed on relatively strict conditions and I accept that you have now complied with those conditions over a period of some 12 months.  That also goes very much in your favour.

4You offered to plead guilty to these charges at the committal stage, which
I regard as an early offer and you must therefore get the benefit of that ultimate plea.  I accept that is accompanied by appropriate remorse.  It has been apparently displayed in the record of interview and you must also, of course, get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty. 

5I am also informed and have no reason to doubt, that during the period of time since you were apprehended, offers have been made to the authorities to assist in the prosecution of co-accused, but they have deemed it unnecessary.  In any event, the intent is there and there must be a demonstrable benefit for that.  That four and a half months was your first time in custody, obviously, and in the normal course of events, would have been served in a youth justice centre, bearing in mind your age.  Four and a half months adult was, in my view,
a significant YTC sentence, had you undergone it. 

6The offending involves you being involved in a grow house near Wonthaggi.  You, I accept, and it seems to be the situation in a number of these sorts of operations, were recruited as an obviously intelligent young man.  The house in which the grow crop was to be grown was put in your name.  You were the one who signed the mortgage documents.  You have probably ruined your credit rating for the rest of your life, and the electricity was in your name, et cetera.  That is common practice in these matters and essentially they turn a young person with no priors into a fall guy if it all goes sour for the people running it. 

7I accept that you were active in the preparation, at least, of this crop, but having looked at the telephone intercepts over a period of time, it is quite clear that
a co-accused, Nguyen, Tran Nguyen, was giving you directions as to what to do and as to how to go about it.  In any event, I should also note that Mr Nguyen was involved in another crop house, for which I have sentenced him with parity with him somewhat, in a somewhat dubious situation.

8In any event, the house in South Dudley was raided by police.  Found there were ultimately some 170-odd plants, weighing around about 34 kilos.  You had not apparently been there, or the Crown could not prove that you had been there for some three weeks or so, so are not in a position to prove a charge of commercial.  However, it is clear from what you were undertaking, just
a simple knowledge of the fact that you were buying a house, in your name at least, that it must have been a serious operation.

9In those circumstances do I think a custodial sentence is virtually inevitable, no matter what your prior circumstances were, but as I have indicated in the ultimate, I am satisfied that what you have served is sufficient, albeit had there been a partially suspended sentence open to me, I may have, in those circumstances, for general deterrent purposes, put more suspended time on it. 

10Obviously general deterrence are important.  Specific deterrence in your situation, bearing in mind your background and your future, I think, are limited.   There must also, of course, be denunciation and appropriate punishment. 

11The co-offender probably closest to you was in regard to a house at Yarram that was being run by the same people and she received 90 days' served as her sentence, though I have not been able to obtain the sentencing remarks in relation to her.  Your role was one of being given orders, but as I have said, nevertheless an active one.

12Very helpful submissions were tendered on your behalf by your counsel and
I have clearly taken those into account.  Importantly, insofar as rehabilitation is concerned, you have no criminal history, you have nothing pending, you have no drug or alcohol issues, you have no mental health issues, you clearly have a very good work ethic and you are clearly very intelligent.  If you are able to obtain 94.5 as a score in Year 12, you are a very intelligent young man indeed.  I think the risk of your re-offending, is low.

13Your background can be described fairly simply.  You were born in North Vietnam.  You effectively had no contact with your mother since you were around two.  She would appear to have difficulties of her own.  Your father was an addict and of no assistance to you whatever.  You were effectively, until your mid-teens,  brought up by a grandfather.  You came to Australia and lived with an aunt and her partner. 

14From the time you got to Australia, you have worked hard.  You went to school, and as I said, you did your VCE in Cranbourne in 2011 and did very well.  You were able to obtain entry to Monash University in civil engineering.  You deferred in 2013, so you had to work to get enough money to support yourself.  Your counsel has described to me the many jobs that you have had, sometimes working three jobs at a time for many hours over the last few years, in an endeavour to support yourself and to provide money for you mother, from whom you are effectively estranged, she living in Thailand.

15I accept that certainly a part of the motivation for you becoming involved in this crime would have been to endeavour to assist her. 

16The effect of you of having been incarcerated and now receiving a gaol sentence, will be that you will have extreme difficulties in entering other countries, that conviction and gaol sentence having been in relation to drugs, and that will clearly affect you for a very long period of time. 

17You are currently working ten hours a day, six days a week and I take that into account as well.  I initially thought that a community corrections order may have been appropriate, but it would seem to me that that would put you in jeopardy, in terms of you having no free time at all. 

18You live by yourself in Springvale.  You do have family support in auntie and her partner from Phillip Island and you had a girlfriend for approximately
12 months. 

19It is always extremely unfortunate to see such an intelligent young man with such a future get himself into such difficulties.  There is nothing the court can do to retrace the steps that you have taken and they are going to cause you difficulties for a significant period of time.  I take all that into account, in terms of the sentence that is imposed, but growing drugs for the purpose of ultimately selling them, where they are not for personal use, just simply is not on and there has to be a message sent that this cannot be done. 

20So taking all those matters into account, I am satisfied that in all these circumstances, the amount of time that you have served, being 136, is sufficient and accordingly you are sentenced to an aggregate sentence of 136 days' imprisonment, and I direct that 136 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence. 

216AAA becomes ridiculous because you probably would have gone on trial for commercial quantity, but in this situation, I will say that but for you plea of guilty and in this situation, if you had been convicted by a jury, I probably would have given you 12 months'.  That probably will not turn up in the declaration, but that is - counsel know what I have said. 

22All right, there is no other - I have made that disposal order.  No other orders need to be made.  There is nothing that I need to do, other than this? 

23COUNSEL:  No. 

24HIS HONOUR:  All right, you can come out of there now, Mr Do.  Counsel will explain to you what has happened.  All right, just take a seat there with your auntie.  All right, thanks, Ms Trumble. 

25MS TRUMBLE:  Thanks, Your Honour.

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