Director of Public Prosecutions v Foster-Edwards

[2023] VCC 981

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

 Revised

Not Restricted

 Suitable for Publication

AT WARRNAMBOOL SITTING IN SHEPPARTON

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 23-00399

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

TRAVIS FOSTER-EDWARDS

---

JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CHETTLE
WHERE HELD:	Warrnambool sitting in Shepparton
DATE OF HEARING:	8 June 2023
DATE OF SENTENCE:	9 June 2023
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Foster-Edwards
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2023] VCC 981

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

---

Subject:  CRIMINAL LAW SENTENCE

Catchwords:  Sentencing – armed robbery, commit indictable offence whilst on bail.

Legislation Cited: s6AAA Sentencing Act 1991

Cases Cited:  

Sentence:Imprisonment – total effective sentence aggregate, 173 days, Community Correction Order, unpaid community work, treatment and rehabilitation for drug addiction, treatment, and rehabilitation for programs to reduce offending, supervision, and Judicial Monitoring. Forfeiture and disposal order.

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms C. Pezzimenti	Mr. A. Lew, Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr R. Bhattacharya	Ms. J. Joseph, Gallant Law

HIS HONOUR:

1Travis Foster-Edwards, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery and the summary offence of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail.  The facts of your offending are set out in Exhibit A, the summary of prosecution opening for trial.  I was told by your counsel I could treat that document as an agreed statement of fact, and I incorporate it into these reasons for sentence and sentence you on the basis of the facts set out therein.

2I do not need to dwell on the facts, they are simple.  On 18 December of 2022, you went to a service station in Percy Street, Portland, you engaged with the attendant behind the counter attempting to buy some cigarette papers, until you finally said, 'Fuck this' and jumped over the counter, produced a knife, terrorised your victims and took the till.  You departed the premises, took the money from the till and dumped it in a paddock.  You were picked up by the police two hours later and told the police where the knife was and where the till was.

3You have admitted a disturbing prior criminal history, however, a thorough examination of that criminal history reveals that there is a lot of repetition in relation to the various offences set out in that document.  You have had two substantial sets of Children's Court dispositions as I read it, and this represents your first foray into adult crime and being dealt with by the adult system.  There is some outstanding matter which may reflect on that particular topic, but that will be done - you have not yet been dealt with for that and we will cross that hurdle when we come to it.

4Excuse me, I have just misplaced your prior history.  I have it now, thank you.  Those priors display offences of dishonesty, thefts, committing indictable offence while on bail, obtaining property by deception, wilful damage, failing to answer bail, theft of a motor vehicle and assaulting an emergency worker on duty and resisting an emergency worker on duty.  In the Children's Court, you have received probation orders in relation to that offending.  Similar offences, assaulting emergency workers on duty carry mandatory gaol terms in the adult court.  I think you need to understand that if you continue to offend like you have in the past, you will find yourself confronted with mandatory gaol terms.

5Normally people who commit armed robberies are sent to prison, but there is a number of factors in your case, your age, you are still a very young man, you have had a disadvantaged background and I hope to receive some further material in relation to that but accepting what your counsel put to me on your plea, principles in Bugmy clearly have relevance.  You have been in custody now for almost six months in an adult prison.  This, to me, is undesirable.  Because of your age and the law says, you should not be imprisoned in an adult prison and if you are going to be incarcerated, it should be in youth detention.

6Because of the history of this matter, the prosecution conceded that time served, and a community corrections order would meet the purposes of sentencing in this case, and I think that concession is well made.  I am concerned about your future.  I have a report as to your suitability to undergo a community corrections order and you have been found suitable, although the author of the report expressed some underlying unease about whether or not you were really taking this seriously.

7Well, you need to take it seriously and I cannot stress - for the next two years, you and I are going to be joined at the hip.  You will be coming back to see me, I will be watching how you go, I will be trying to ensure that you do not breach your order and you get the support you need to get you through, because the next two years in your life are critical.  You either clean up your act and stay out of trouble or you are likely to end up in prison.  You have been there, and you probably do not like it and I am trying to make sure you do not go back there.

8It is really up to you and with the assistance of the community corrections order people to make the most of this.  Normally, as I say, armed robbery attracts a significant term of imprisonment, but your offending represents a lower-level example of the offence of armed robbery, it was amateurish, the man behind the till recognised you from school, you made no attempt to disguise yourself and it seemed to me that you acted spontaneously in a way that struck you as appropriate at the time.

9It was silly, you were doomed to be caught and you were caught.  You have spent nearly six months in an adult prison because of $350 taken from a till.  Well, I have taken account of the matters urged upon on your behalf in Exhibit 1, your counsel's submissions.  I have taken into account your plea of guilty.  I accept that you are remorseful, I accept that your plea of guilty has greater value because of the effect COVID-19 has had upon our justice system and I accept the proposition that you are a low example of the offence of armed robbery.

10I have given weight to the Bugmy principles even though I am a bit light on material and at 19, you are still a young man and the principles in Mills case have application.  I propose to make an order that will see you released from custody today.  I am going to order that on both charges, on the indictable charge, the plea of armed robbery and on the summary offence of committing an indictable offence on bail, on both those charges you are convicted, and you are sentenced to 172 days imprisonment.

11MS PEZZIMENTI:  Three today, sorry.  Seventy-two was yesterday, 173 days today.

12HIS HONOUR:  All right, I amend that to 173 days imprisonment.  I will declare that 173 days of the sentence I have just imposed has already been served by way of pre-sentence detention.  In addition to that term of imprisonment, on both charges, you are to be released on a community corrections order for a period of two years.  Apart from the core conditions, that you are to perform 200 hours of unpaid community work, undergo treatment and rehabilitation for drug addiction, involve treatment and rehabilitation for programs to reduce offending and you will be under supervision.

13I will order that 60 hours of the programs you undergo can be deducted from the unpaid community work and I am going to order judicial monitoring.  That is, you will appear before me on 11 October of this year at 10 am and then on 14 February next year at 10 am.  You can do that via video link from your Corrections officer's office.  You do not have to come to Melbourne.  I note
Mr Bhattacharya that the report says he is to report to Warrnambool, but is there not one in - no.  That is going to be problematic.  How is he going to get to Warrnambool from Portland?

14MR BHATTACHARYA:  Yes, perhaps if Mr Foster-Edwards - looks like he's about to say something Your Honour.

15HIS HONOUR:  All right.

16OFFENDER:  Um, there is bus - there's bus services and I can - if I can - I can organise a bus ticket or I can get a lift there to Warrnambool.

17HIS HONOUR:  All right, well for the - they will probably let you report on some of the occasions by telephone, but what I am going to - you have got to report within two days, and I think that - yes, within two working days.  So, you have got to report by 5 o'clock on Wednesday, all right, next week.  You will be released hopefully today.  You plan to return to Portland, do you?

18OFFENDER:  Ah yes, with my father.

19HIS HONOUR:  Stay with your father and you've got to get to Warrnambool - the Warrnambool Corrections Centre at 769 Ragland Parade, Warrnambool.  Do you know where that is?

20OFFENDER:  Um, yes in Ragland Parade, yes.

21HIS HONOUR:  Now when you get there, you will have to sign a copy of the order that I have just made, the Corrections order.  We will fax it to your Community Corrections worker, they will have you sign it and send it back to me.  Do you understand?

22OFFENDER:  Yes.

23HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Now normally 19-year old's who commit armed robbery go to gaol, but I am going to try and make sure you stay out, but I need you to cooperate and help, all right?

24OFFENDER:  Yes.

25HIS HONOUR:  You will be let out tonight, try and see if you can make it through to Wednesday without doing anything silly.

26OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

27HIS HONOUR:  All right, very well.

28MS PEZZIMENTI:  And 6AAA.

29HIS HONOUR: Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I indicate that but for your pleas of guilty, I would have imposed a term of detention of two and a half years in a youth training centre.

30MS PEZZIMENTI:  Your Honour pleases.

31HIS HONOUR:  All right, now ‑ ‑ ‑

32MR BHATTACHARYA:  As Your Honour pleases.

33HIS HONOUR:  ‑ ‑ ‑ we will send the order to the Corrections people for him to sign and I will see him on 11 October 2023.

34MR BHATTACHARYA:  Yes, thank you Your Honour.  Your Honour, may I possibly request - be able to speak to my client?  I won't get the chance to speak to him ‑ ‑ ‑

35HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

36MR BHATTACHARYA:  ‑ ‑ ‑ if he's going to be let out.

37HIS HONOUR:  I will leave the Bench.

38MR BHATTACHARYA:  Yes.

39HIS HONOUR:  We will turn off the tape recorder, you can talk to him.

40MR BHATTACHARYA:  Yes, thank you, Your Honour.

41HIS HONOUR:  I want you to stress that he has done very well today.  If he goes and does another stick-up, he will not be doing nearly as well.

42MR BHATTACHARYA:  Thank you, Your Honour.

43HIS HONOUR:  And if you can get hold of some material, it will assist me for the future, if I do have to deal with him.

44MR BHATTACHARYA:  Yes, I will speak to my instructor.

45HIS HONOUR:  All right, thank you.  This court stands adjourned sine die.  Were there some other issue Madam Prosecutor?

46MS PEZZIMENTI:  Sorry, my instructor's saying to me that there's an issue with the commit indictable offence as part of an aggregate sentence.

47HIS HONOUR:  Why?  It carries a gaol term of three months.

48MS PEZZIMENTI:  It does, that's right.

49HIS HONOUR:  And I can make the same order on both charges.

50MS PEZZIMENTI:  Yes.

51HIS HONOUR:  I mean the time served comes - I do not see any issue with the aggregate sentence.

52MS PEZZIMENTI:  Yes, I am sure that's right, Your Honour.

53HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

54MS PEZZIMENTI:  Yes.

55HIS HONOUR:  I considered that when I did it.  Thank you for your assistance, that is the end of the ‑ ‑ ‑

56MS PEZZIMENTI:  It is.

57HIS HONOUR:  ‑ ‑ ‑ circuit.  I adjourn sine die.

58MS PEZZIMENTI:  Your Honour pleases.

‑ ‑ ‑