Director of Public Prosecutions v Fred

[2013] VCC 2059

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 13-01445

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

CHRISTOPHER LEE FRED

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	3 December 2013
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Fred
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2013] VCC 2059

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	Ms A. Bhai	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms J. Anderson

HIS HONOUR: 

1Christopher Lee Fred, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of theft, one charge of armed robbery, one charge of attempted armed robbery and one charge of reckless conduct endangering serious injury.  Those crimes carry maximum penalties of ten years, 25 years, 20 years, and five years respectively.  You also pleaded guilty to two uplifted charges, one of exceeding the speed limit and one of not having an experienced driver whilst driving on a learner's permit.  On those two matters you are convicted and fined an aggregate of $200 insofar as the speeding is concerned, and your licence is suspended for a period of six months.

2You are 19 years of age, or 18 years of age at the time of the offending.  You pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity, that being at committal.  You profess to express remorse and you must, of course, get the utilitarian benefit of plea of guilty.  You do have prior findings of guilt and convictions and I will refer to those briefly in a moment.  In terms of summarising the offence, I will annexe the Crown opening to these my sentencing remarks rather than go through it in massive detail. 

3The circumstances were that on 8 May 2012 you were sentenced to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of 18 months.  On 9 August 2012 I sentenced you to be detained in a Youth Justice Centre for a period of 12 months to be run concurrently.  That was because the matter for which I  was sentencing you would have been, should have been or could have been dealt with at the same time as the earlier matters.  You were ultimately released on parole.   Whilst you were on parole, on 13 and 26 January 2013 the following offences occurred.

4On 12 January - and I will not go into the detail of this because, as I say, I am annexing it - a car was stolen.  You and others, wearing masks and carrying machetes, went to the Bottle-O on Dandenong Road in Oakleigh South.  You rushed towards the owner, Kai Jin, who was standing next to the counter.  One of you yelled out "Robbery", he did not respond.  That male yelled out again, "Robbery, robbery".  One of you stood in front of the man and held the machete near his throat.  He was told to open the cash drawer.  He opened the drawer.  He was pushed into the corner and money was grabbed.  Shortly after that,  one of your group stood in front of him and held the machete about ten centimetres from his face.  More money was then demanded and someone slammed the machete on to the glass counter, causing it to smash, yelling out, "I will kill you".  Mr Jin stayed back in the corner as the three of  you grabbed cash from the drawer and ended up getting away with approximately $2000 cash, 22 bottles of alcohol, and six cartons of cigarettes.  One of you apparently had been looking repeatedly at his watch and said "Go", after which you all ran up to the car and then drove away.  Mr Jin ran after you with a steel bar.  The car was never recovered.

5On 25 January 2013 you stole another car.  Mr Jin was again the victim at the Bottle-O in Dandenong Road.  You with your younger brother both had 40 centimetre machetes and both had your faces covered.  On approaching the counter, whichever of you who was nearest to Mr Jin swung his machete towards him.  He picked up a star picket and chased the two of you with it.  One of you swung the machete towards him again and Mr Jin struck him on the arm with the star picket.  You stood near the counter, raised the machetes; however, Mr Jin did not stop and chased you both out of the store.  You ran to the Camry which was parked outside, got into it and drove away.  There was then a police chase which is the subject of the reckless endangerment charges and I do not need to go through the detail of that.  It certainly was dangerous driving, for which there can be no excuse.

6Mr Jin in his victim impact statement and again in his statements said he was very scared that you had all come back.  He was scared that you would hurt him or the girl that worked for him.  It is serious offending indeed, Mr Fred, and you have done it before.  I think only a person who has experienced an armed robbery of this nature, or certainly at least watched them on CCTV and listened to the sound of these matters, can understand how terrifying it is for a victim.  I do not think it aggravates it in the true sense, but this fellow copped it twice by the same people.  Obviously general and specific deterrence have to play a part and specific deterrence for you, where you have done this whilst on parole, would have to be significant.  Denunciation and punishment are obviously called for. 

7You were arrested on 26 January 2013 and kept for 38 days in adult custody.  That had a most deleterious effect on you.  Parole was then cancelled and you returned to Youth Justice where you still are.  I direct that the psychological reports and the reports of Youth Justice that have been tendered remain on file.  Simply to say this; that the Crown did not oppose the view that because of your age that the sentence I impose should be one of Youth Justice.  It just fits within the limit applicable to that.

8At the moment your breached parole expires in January of 2014.  I have read obviously the report from Youth Justice and the report finds you suitable because of your condition and vulnerability.  I have checked my sentencing remarks from the last time you were before me,  Mr Fred.  Insofar as rehabilitation is concerned and the risk of re-offending, it concerns me.  I told you last time that if you want to be a crook and spend years in gaol, that is up to you, and it is the way you are headed.  You have been taken from adult prison and put into Youth Justice because of the effect it has on you and the way you cannot handle it.  If you get transferred across, you will not be coming back. You have also got to understand that if, when you are paroled - and it is not a matter for me at all - you do something like this again, it will be adult gaol and someone even at your age with this many priors for armed robbery, you get to the stage where the community potentially says, "See you later", all right?  I understand that you have had a very difficult background, I understand the things that happened to you as a kid.  You go in there terrifying blokes like that, swinging machetes, smashing the glass, terrifying people, you will have to wear it in the end, all right?  You are still in Youth Justice - just. 

9Doing the best I can, taking into account all the sentencing principles, on Charge 1, three months' Youth Justice.  Charge 2, 24 months.  Charge 3, three months.  Charge 4, 18 months, and Charge 5, three months.  I direct that six months of the detention imposed on Charge 4 and one month of the detention imposed on Charge 5 be served cumulatively upon each other and upon the detention imposed on Charge 2.  On my calculation that gives a period of detention of two years and seven months. I direct that that run concurrently with what is presently being undergone and I have taken into account that lost opportunity for concurrency, if it can be described in that way, of something in the order of eight months exists.

10In this scenario, s.6AAA is a difficult proposition.  Had you been convicted of these matters by a jury, bearing in mind your circumstances and your age, I can simply say I would have imposed a period of detention of three years.  That is a little misleading.  That is not to say you have not been given the benefit of your plea of guilty, it just simply means that the most you can do in a Youth Justice Centre is three years so no higher sentence than that can be given as a matter of law.

11On the two charges of theft of a motor vehicle, any licence to drive a motor vehicle is suspended for a period of 12 months.  I direct that 38 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence.

12Are there any other matters?

13MS BHAI:  Did Your Honour set for the related summary offences - - -

14HIS HONOUR:  Fined $200 aggregate.  So what he can do is just get on the video link and I will turn it into a couple of days' detention.

15MS BHAI:  Sorry, Your Honour.  I didn't hear what Your Honour said for the period in regard to the licence.

16HIS HONOUR:  Twelve months.  Six months on the exceed whatever it was, by 45, and 12 months on the two car thefts, suspension, for the reasons I outlined.  If he has a licence when he gets out he has a better chance of finding employment.  No other orders I need to make?

17MS BHAI:  No, Your Honour has made the ancillary orders and there's nothing further.

18HIS HONOUR:  All right, thank you. 

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