Director of Public Prosecutions v Farah

[2025] VCC 307

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-23-01563

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ABDIAZIZ FARAH

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	13 March 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	20 March 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Farah
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 307

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:  CRIMINAL LAW - SENTENCING

Catchwords:  Attempted armed robbery – false imprisonment – common assault – theft – lack of remorse – under the influence of drugs – high objective gravity – criminal history – limited steps towards rehabilitation – childhood trauma – grief – guarded to reasonable rehabilitation prospects – specific deterrence – denunciation

Legislation Cited:

Cases Cited:Bugmy v R (2013) 249 CLR 571; Verdins v R (2007) 16 VR 269; Kowskiv The King [2024] VSCA 3

Sentence:Total effective sentence 4 years 4 months; non-parole period 2 years 10 months; 378 days reckoned as served

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	M. Keks	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	C. Oldham	Valos Black & Associates

HIS HONOUR: 

1Abdiaziz Farah, on 27 November 2024 a jury found you guilty of attempted armed robbery (Charge 1), false imprisonment (Charge 2), common assault (Charge 3), and theft (Charge 5), all occurring on 8 September 2022. 

Summary of offending

2The basis for these verdicts is set out in the Prosecution Summary of Facts for Sentence dated 17 February 2025.

3In summary, at about 5pm on 8 September 2022, you were approaching the entrance to the 7-Eleven on Ashley Street, Braybrook when you called out to the victim, Ahmed Haida, who was ahead of you.  You both proceeded into the store.  While inside, you asked him to buy you a coffee, which he did.

4Mr Haida then left the store and went to his car.  You followed him and asked for a lift, getting into his car as he unlocked it. 

5Mr Haida got into his car and saw you with a knife in your right hand, pointed at him.  You threatened Haider with it, demanding that he give you his phone or you would 'gut him' (Charge 1 - attempted armed robbery).

6You then told Mr Haida to drive away from the 7‑Eleven and the cameras there, again threatening him with the knife (Charge 2 - false imprisonment).

7He did as you told him and saw that you had a second knife on your left. 

8While he drove, you held the other knife under Mr Haida's armpit, its blade scratching his chest (Charge 3 - common assault).

9Eventually, Mr Haida stopped the car outside a house in Darnley Street, Braybrook, where his friend lived.  You told him to get out or you would stab him.  As you both got out of the car he asked you why you were doing these things and among other things, you put the knife on the roof of the car and while on the opposite side of the car, invited him to fight one on one.  Mr Haida instead walked away towards the house.

10You stayed at the car going through Mr Haida's belongings and took face masks and a black baseball cap before leaving (Charge 5 - theft).

11There is no Victim Impact Statement from Mr Haida.  However, having seen the footage and heard evidence from him during the trial, I am satisfied that your conduct traumatised him and that the events of the day have had a prolonged effect on him, as is to be expected.

12You have said, and I accept, that you offended while under the influence of methamphetamine and alcohol.

Procedural history

13Police arrested and interviewed you a few days later on 12 September 2022.  You made no comment on the allegations when they put them to you. 

14You were released pending summons and then charged on 28 April 2023, then remanded on 4 May 2023.

15On 18 October 2023 you were granted bail, which was revoked on
12 February 2024 because you failed to appear at court.  You were subsequently arrested on that warrant and remanded on 15 April 2024 and you have remained in custody since then.

16There is no particular evidence before me about your experience on remand. 

17You pleaded not guilty to all charges and after a trial of six days, on
27 November 2024 a jury found you guilty of Charges 1, 2, 3 and 5.  They found you not guilty of Charge 4, making a threat to kill, relating to other words you allegedly said in the car during the same incident.  You will of course not be sentenced for that.

18You have demonstrated no remorse for your offending.

Personal circumstances

19You were 35 at the time of the offending and you are now 37. 

20You came to Australia as a refugee when you were about five years old with your mother and siblings, fleeing the civil war in Somalia. 

21Your childhood there was marred by trauma and loss, including due to your father's death during the war.

22You came to Australia under a refugee sponsorship program to join your older brother and extended family, who were already here.  Nevertheless, you faced various challenges.  Your mother was the family's sole provider for a family of children, all five children all sharing a single room.  Unsurprisingly you faced both language and cultural barriers while settling in Melbourne and at school.

23In spite of those difficulties, you describe discovering a life here that was 'amazing'.  You had siblings and cousins to spend time and play with. 

24You showed interest in school, particularly in maths, but also got into trouble and ultimately were expelled twice due to aggressive behaviour, including towards teachers.

25You were out of school for a year but returned and completed Year 12.  To me that demonstrates a great effort on your part and shows that you are able to achieve significant goals when in the right frame of mind and with appropriate supports.

26You started drinking socially and using cannabis at about age 18 in 2005.  This then escalated to daily use over time.  While you have had limited periods of abstinence, smoking cannabis has been a feature of your adult life. 

27You began using methamphetamines in 2012 aged about 25, influenced by a desire to escape, you said, from grief over an uncle's death.

28Over the years you have held various jobs in warehousing, delivery services, and hospitality.  You have worked intermittently also at your family's restaurant in Kensington, where you will be welcome following your release.

29In 2014 aged about 27 you began a romantic relationship with a woman who moved here from Malaysia, and you lived together.  You had three children who are now aged about 10, eight and seven.  That relationship ended acrimoniously however because of your escalating drug abuse, and you have no contact with any of them.

30You had a particularly close relationship with your older brother, who sadly died in 2021 from COVID-19 related illness.  I accept that his death would have had a significant impact on you, and that you continue to grieve for him.  Your already significant drinking and methamphetamine use escalated in response to his passing.

31The 10 months which you have now spent in custody is your longest period of abstinence from methamphetamines.  In custody, you maintain weekly contact with your sister and occasional contact with your mother.

32You have a relevant criminal history beyond minor offences relating to driving, drinking, and possessing cannabis during 2010-2018.  Your relevant history began in 2020 when you were imprisoned for 365 days for recklessly causing injury and failing to answer bail. 

33In 2021 you served 60 days for an assault and offensive behaviour in public.  Later that same year you served 14 days for hindering police and breaching an intervention order, and then a further six months for affray, possessing a weapon, assaulting police, failing to answer bail, theft, and related offences.

34You were released from that sentence about eight months before the offending in this case.  I will not punish you again for your past, but it is relevant to the need to deter you from getting into more trouble and assessing your prospects for change.

35During your remand you have completed a short course on ice use which, I am told, would seem to be a major risk factor for you. 

36Forensic psychologist, Dr Hanna Dawson, assessed you and provided a report dated 3 March 2025 (Exhibit 1).  In it she stated that your experience of life in Somalia, being a refugee and the difficulties you had with acclimatisation to Australian culture, including learning a new language, likely made you vulnerable to drug abuse.  That is, your drug use may have been a form of self-medication for your stress.  She said you now have alcohol, cannabis, and stimulant use disorders.

37Otherwise, Dr Dawson found you to have average or perhaps low average intelligence, only mild depressive and anxiety symptoms, and that you are not affected by post‑traumatic stress.  She suggested your low score on an assessment of aggression was under representative of your actual potential for such behaviour.  Whilst you demonstrated some symptoms of post-traumatic stress, it did not reach the threshold necessary for a diagnosis of such a condition.

38Further, your risk of future offending was assessed by her as being moderate.  The prosecutor did not dispute this and so I accept that opinion.

39Dr Dawson reported that you demonstrated limited insight into your risk and the role drugs played in that risk.  You seemed more focused, she commented, on self-medicating your grief than the harmful consequences of your drug use. 

Sentencing issues

40The maximum penalty for attempted armed robbery is 20 years' imprisonment, for false imprisonment and theft it is 10 years each, and for common law assault it is five years.

41Objectively speaking, the gravity of your offending is high.  You were the principal offender and you engaged in the charged conduct for no stated reason.  It included public, and in my view, brazen threats of violence with a dangerous weapon. 

42Such violence must be met with stern sentences so as to deter others from engaging in such conduct.  This behaviour must also be denounced strongly and attract just punishment accordingly.

43Your counsel, Mr Oldham, submitted that due to matters personal to you, your culpability for the offences is somewhat lowered due to the general effects of your childhood experiences on your moral and behavioural development.  He made that submission in accordance with the principles in the case of Bugmy.[1]

[1] (2013) 249 CLR 571

44The prosecutor agreed that this was so, but only to a moderate degree, and I agree. 

45Mr Oldham suggested that your depressive and anxious symptoms served to make your time in custody more onerous, as recognised in the case of Verdins.[2]  In light of those symptoms only being observed to be mild, and the qualified way in which the psychological material stated this risk, I do not accept this submission.

[2] (2007) 16 VR 269

46Your criminal history is relevant and in recent years reasonably substantial.  I will give greater weight in sentencing you to specific deterrence and community protection than I would for a person without such a history.

47As all of the offences occurred in a single incident, albeit over a period of time, I will adjust orders for cumulation so as to arrive at a total sentence that reflects the totality of what occurred and no more.

48I find your prospects for rehabilitation to be guarded to reasonable.  You have served a number of relatively short prison terms since 2020 and seemingly, only had partial success in avoiding further offending.  You remain a moderate risk of further offending with, in my view, concerning attitudes to treatment and change.

49The prosecutor submitted that only a sentence that attracts a non-parole period would be appropriate.  Your counsel submitted that given the time you have served and that I can impose up to a further 12 months before releasing you on a CCO, I should impose such a combined sentence.

50I have, however, little to no information beyond your instructions to counsel about your efforts to manage your addiction to methamphetamine and your behaviour.  I might have considered a combination sentence if for example, there was a basis for saying that you had already travelled a considerable distance down the path to rehabilitation and thereby shown that you are able to be released on a CCO safely and appropriately.

51However, given the seriousness of the offences, your limited insight, and the lack of any great progress towards rehabilitation, I find that the only proper sentence is one that involves intensive supervision under release on parole.

52During the plea hearing the prosecutor referred to the recent case of Kowskiv The King [2024] VSCA 3, which I have read. Of course, the prosecutor accepted that one case does not represent current sentencing practice and does not bind me in any way as to the result, but it indicates matters of principle that are to be considered in circumstances that are common to that case and yours. Among other things however, I note that Kowski was a guilty plea and involved a Koori Court sentencing conversation.

53In all the circumstances, I sentence you as follows:

a)    On Charge 1 - attempted armed robbery – 3 years 9 months.

b)    On Charge 2, false imprisonment – 12 months.

c)    On Charge 3, common law assault – 14 months.

d)    On Charge 5, theft – 6 months.

54Two months of the sentence on Charge 2, four months of the sentence on Charge 3, and one month of the sentence on Charge 5 are to be served cumulatively upon each other and upon the sentence in Charge 1, making a total effective sentence of 4 years and 4 months.

55I fix a non-parole period of 2 years and 10 months.

56I declare that you have served 378 days pre-sentence detention and direct that this be reckoned as a period already served under this sentence.

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