Director of Public Prosecutions v Hall
[2015] VCC 1338
•23 September 2015
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTIONCR 13-01688
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| BRIAN HALL |
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| JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE MASON |
| WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
| DATE OF HEARING: | 11 September 2015 |
| DATE OF SENTENCE: | 23 September 2015 |
| CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Hall |
| MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2015] VCC 1338 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Plea - sentencing
Catchwords: Obtain financial advantage by deception - attempt to obtain financial
advantage by deception - dishonestly influence a Commonwealth public
official - dishonestly obtain delivery of articles - obtain property by deception
- handling stolen goods - possess false document
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), Crimes Act 1914 (Cth)
Cases Cited:
Sentence: Total effective sentence 7 years and 5 months' imprisonment,
with effective minimum term 5 years and 5 months
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr S. Devlin | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Mr R. Lawrence | Spicer Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
1Brian Hall, you have pleaded guilty to ten charges of obtain a financial advantage by deception, three charges of attempt to obtain a financial advantage by deception, one charge of dishonestly influence a Commonwealth public official, one charge of dishonestly obtain delivery of articles, two charges of obtain property by deception, two charges of handling stolen goods and one charge of possess false document.
- The offence of handling stolen goods carries a maximum penalty of 15 years' imprisonment.
- Each of the offences of obtain a financial advantage by deception, obtain property by deception and possess false document carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment.
- Each of the offences of attempt to obtain a financial advantage by deception, dishonestly influence a Commonwealth public official and dishonestly obtain delivery of items carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.
2You are presently 61 years of age, having been born on 8 October 1953. You were aged between 56 and 59 when this offending occurred from May 2010 to October 2012.
3You have a criminal record, to which I will refer in greater detail later.
4The circumstances of your offending are as follows.
5The charges are derived from two separate police investigations. Charges were laid by two police informants, namely Detective Senior Constable Sheen and Detective Senior Constable Drew.
6The Sheen investigation was first in time, and involved the deceptions of the Westpac and Commonwealth banks which are part of Charges 2, 3, 4 and 5. The later Drew investigation covered deceptions of a large number of financial institutions which also included the Westpac and Commonwealth banks. The offending involved similar conduct, but the sophistication of offending was greater in relation to the Drew charges.
7In relation to the Sheen brief, credit card applications were lodged electronically, usually supported with false employment details and payslips, false driver licence details, false rate notices and Medicare details. On some occasions cards were picked up and cash withdrawals and purchases made. You were photographed on three occasions at ATMs using a card obtained by deception. On one occasion, you were photographed when using a card obtained by deception and were in the company of another man.
8The Sheen investigation largely concluded on 19 August 2010. You had made or caused to have made an online application for a Westpac Platinum credit card under the name Peter Jonas Simmonds. The application was flagged as suspicious and the police were contacted.
9On 19 August 2010 you attended the Port Melbourne branch of the Westpac bank and produced to Mr Antonio Chestler a false driver's licence, utility bill, birth certificate in the name of Peter Simmonds and payslips from AbleQuest Pty Ltd in support of the application. Mr Chestler was a bank investigator posing as a bank teller. You were to be offered a credit card with a limit of $30,000 (part of Charge 4). You were then arrested by police after leaving the bank.
10In relation to the Sheen investigation, you were interviewed on 19 August 2010. A number of the false Westpac applications the subject of the Sheen investigation can be linked to premises in Kellerman Drive, Point Cook. You were later seen at this address and spoken to by Detective Drew.
11
In false applications which were the subject of the Drew brief you acted specifically with Julia Alexander. You and Ms Alexander were later arrested on 17 October 2012 at the Toorak unit in which you both resided.
12In relation to the Drew investigation, on occasions the deceptions were more sophisticated and involved the use of Veda credit checks. Veda supplies a service to financial institutions that are required to check the credit rating and history of applicants applying for finance. Individuals wishing to check their own credit rating and history are also able to apply for a Veda credit check if they are able to supply proof of identity and personal information.
13On occasions, Veda credit checks have been obtained by you and/or Ms Alexander which showed the named person's credit rating history. By using the Veda checks, you and/or others were able to obtain further personal information relating to the person enquired about, such as previous addresses resided at by the person, the person's bank account details and particulars relevant to credit rating.
14The Veda credit checks were submitted by a company known as "Great Ministry of Financial Services" who had a subscription to Veda, which account was closed on 24 April 2012.
15Using information from various sources you, with the involvement of Ms Alexander and a person known as “Pablo” from the Philippines, were able to obtain or have produced a number of false documents including fraudulent Victoria driver's licences and fraudulent Medicare cards.
16On occasions, using false templates you obtained or caused to be obtained or have produced fraudulent Victorian birth certificates, false Victorian driver's licence receipts, false business payslips, false utility bills, various false council rates notices and fake letters from employers.
17After obtaining the fraudulent Victorian driver's licence and Medicare cards and manufacturing supporting documentation you, Ms Alexander and/or unknown persons possessed the required 100 points of identification required to establish bank accounts, apply for credit cards, establish fraudulent business names and set up Australia Post Office boxes and submit mail re-directions.
18Between March 2011 and August 2012, you fraudulently opened or caused to be obtained four Post Office boxes in various assumed identities. On a further eleven occasions you obtained or caused to be obtained fraudulent mail re-directions to be put in place. This allowed you or others to redirect personal information and/or mail in the name of various loan applicants to yourself.
19Attached to some of the original Post Office box applications and mail redirection forms were photocopies of the fraudulently-made Victorian driver's licences containing the assumed identity details with an image of you. You had also been captured on CCTV footage on four separate occasions at various Australia Post stores lodging the fraudulent Post Office box applications and mail re-directions.
20Once you or your associates had completed or caused to be completed the false documents and obtained Post Office boxes and mail redirects and established mobile phone numbers, false applications were made for credit to various financial institutions. You obtained or caused to be obtained mobile phones and prepaid mobile phone numbers. The mobile phones would then be individually labelled with the assumed identity's name and mobile phone number on the actual mobile phone.
21On occasions, email addresses would also be set up in the names of the assumed identities with various internet and email providers. You would then apply or assist in applications for credit cards at various banking and credit institutions by way of online applications.
22The assumed identity details would be submitted in the online credit card applications. These applications would variously include names, addresses, dates of birth, driver's licence numbers, mobile phone numbers and/or fictitious employer details that had been set up or caused to be set up by you or your associates. Also on occasions, copies of false pay slips and/or utility bills were attached to the online applications.
23Credit cards from successful applications would then be sent to a bank branch for collection, where you would attend and collect a credit card, producing the fake driver's licence as proof of identity. Alternatively, the credit card would be mailed to one of the Post Office boxes set up or caused to be set up by you or your associates.
24At approximately 10 am on 17 October 2012, detectives from the St Kilda Crime Investigation Unit executed a search warrant at a unit in Bruce Street Toorak, being the residential address of you and Ms Alexander. Both you and Ms Alexander were present at the address and were arrested.
25During the search a large number of exhibits were located in all parts of the premises. Items seized included over 1,000 paper documents, credit cards, Medicare cards, computers, hard drives and over 70 mobile phones individually labelled with assumed identity names and fictitious business names.
26Also located were 35 Victorian driver's licence cards/receipts containing the details of various assumed identities but all with your image inset. Another 5 Victorian driver's licence cards were located with various names but with Ms Alexander's image inset.
27Police located 16 false Medicare cards and 9 false birth certificates. Also located were various banking statements, Veda credit check records, false electricity bills, false pay slips, false birth certificates, prepaid phone packs, receipts and Post Office box applications, re-directions and Post Office box keys. Spreadsheets containing all the details of the assumed identities were located at the premises.
28As a result of the search, keys and paperwork to a number of storage facilities and a business address were located. Further searches were subsequently executed on 18 October 2012 at the Storage King facility situated at the Bellarine Highway in Newcomb. As a result, further bank documents, identification information, prepaid mobile phone packs and 2,000 Civic Video applications were located in the storage facility at Storage King, Newcomb.
29Police also located four legitimate Medicare cards at your residence on 17 October 2012. These cards were in the names of Robert H. Jones, Ben C. O'Leary, Chamkaur Singh and Andrea G. Montiroli. This is the basis of the handling stolen goods charge, Charge 19.
30Hard drives and computers seized from the unit in Bruce Street, Toorak were subjected to forensic analysis by the Victoria Police E-Crime Squad. A substantial number of the documents and images viewed relate to the fraudulent activities of you and/or Ms Alexander.
31In relation to the Drew brief, you were interviewed on 17 October 2012. You made a partial “no comment” record of interview and you responded to the police as follows:
· As to answer 73, "Yeah … there is a syndicate … it's not just a one-man band … there's a number of people involved."
· As to answer 76 (as to your role), "… yeah, you know, mundane [sic – Monday] … so aspects of the operation."
32The amounts of the financial advantage by deception total $402,343.59 and were obtained from ten separate financial institutions. The net amount of moneys received, less fees and charges, was $306,458.15.
33The net amount of the property by deception is $10,237.50 and was obtained from two separate entities, Optus and JB Hi Fi.
34The gross amount relating to the attempts to obtain financial advantage by deception is a minimum of $133,700 and involved three financial institutions, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank and the National Australia Bank.
35You were not alone in the organisation and implementation of the offending, and appear to have been part of an organised group. Police suspect that at least another two males and a female were also involved in parts of these deceptions. You had, however, no mere peripheral role; you were actively involved at Bruce Street, where so much of the incriminating material was discovered, your photograph appeared overwhelmingly on the cards, you were observed at bank collections, post offices and other places relevant to the deceptions and you were clearly involved as a principal offender.
36Julia Alexander pleaded guilty on 20 January 2014 to an indictment containing the following charges:
· Obtain financial advantage by deception, 12 charges
· Dishonestly obtain delivery of articles, one charge
· Dishonestly influencing a Commonwealth public official, one charge
· Attempt to obtain financial advantage by deception, one charge
· Possess identity information, one charge
· Handle stolen goods, one charge
· Possess a drug of dependence, one charge
· Possess false Australian travel document, one charge.
37Ms Alexander was sentenced on 22 May 2014 by His Honour Judge Gamble on the State charges to a total effective sentence of 2 years' imprisonment, with 16 months suspended for two years. On the Commonwealth charges, she was sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment with a recognisance release in the sum of $500 to be of good behaviour for 15 months.
38Issues of parity do not arise, Ms Alexander's circumstances can be readily distinguished from yours by your wider role in the offending, your antecedent criminal history, her guilty plea at an early stage, her rehabilitation prospects and her cooperation with the authorities.
39The following dates in the chronology relevant to you are significant:
6/05/2009 Parole was granted.
6/06/2010 – 19/08/2010 Sheen offences committed. I note that all Sheen
offences occurred whilst on parole.
19/08/2010 You were arrested and interviewed on the Sheen
offences.
29/07/2011 Your previous sentence lapsed, that is, the
sentence that ultimately came from your appeal to
the Court of Appeal.
27/09/2011 You were charged on the Sheen offences.
24/05/2010 – 2/10/2012 Drew offences committed. I note that some of the
early Drew offences were committed during
parole.
17/10/2012 You were arrested and charged on the Drew
offences
4/09/2013 Committal.
40I will now turn to your personal circumstances.
41You are presently 61 years of age, and you were aged between 56 and 59 when this offending occurred from May 2010 to October 2012. You have described yourself as “retired”.
42You grew up on a farm, left school at 16 and continued to work on the farm until employed as stock and station agent. In the late 1970's you worked as a real estate agent and in the 1980's ran your own signage business, eventually moving to Sydney, working on contract for Philip Morris. That work finished in the late 1990's following a ban on outdoor tobacco advertising and you returned to Melbourne earning a living by buying and selling cars. It appears you have not worked since and the years have been punctuated with committing offences and serving time in gaol.
43You have one child, a son, by a marriage which broke up in the 1990's. Your son lived alone with you for two years, ultimately became estranged from you and now lives in Singapore. In recent times he has reconciled with you and you have been in regular contact with him.
44You have the continuing support of your mother, brother and two sisters. Both sisters were present at the occasion of your plea submission and I note they are here today. Your sister Zola had provided surety in the sum of $100,000 and residence at her home to secure your bail prior to and during the period of your trial. Zola has provided an independent written assessment of your attitude whilst living with her and has joined the other members of your family in a further written history and character assessment.
45It appears that you have reflected on your wasted years and have expressed shame and remorse to them all. You have shown an acceptance of responsibility whilst on bail and have been particularly attentive to the care and support of your aged mother. It is said that you have developed a sense of self-worth and belonging that had previously been lacking, and you have made a commitment to turn your life around. In this context you have expressed a desire to engage in some form of training with the prospect of engaging in a form of youth counselling in the future.
46You have a criminal history. Your first court appearance was at the Frankston Magistrate's Court in 1999, where you were put on a six-month community-based order for similar dishonesty offences to those for which you are being sentenced here today.
47In November 2003 you appeared at the Melbourne County Court, this Court, again for dishonesty offences and you were given a 62-month gaol term with a non-parole period of 40 months.
48You appeared here again in March 2007, yet again for dishonesty offences, and you were given a four-and-a-half year gaol term, with a non-parole period of two years. You appealed the sentence to the Supreme Court and in September 2008 your appeal was successful, reducing your sentence to a three-and-a-half year gaol term, still with a non-parole period of two years.
49Your current offending represents a very serious example of fraudulent, deceptive behaviour on a wide scale. It was highly organised, it involved significant amounts of money, it was considered, calculated and became increasingly sophisticated. It extended over a period just short of two and a half years.
50Your behaviour, moreover, was an extension of previous modus operandi. In 2003 Her Honour Judge Lawson of this court described your thefts and deceptions as “practised, cleverly planned and executed and … carried out in a calculated and sophisticated way …”. Her Honour regarded the evidence as disclosing you as being "In the business as a professional thief."
51In 2007 you were sentenced by the Court of Appeal for similar offending as that before me now. You had pleaded guilty to nine counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, seven counts of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception and single counts of obtaining property by deception, dealing with proceeds of crime and handling stolen goods. In that instance the core behaviour involved you purchasing packages of fraudulent identity documents which were then used to commit frauds upon various banks and credit institutions. The offending was described by the original sentencing judge as "… an organised scheme to defraud banks, businesses and the like on quite a large scale."
52The Court of Appeal described the offences in issue as being "constituted by the deliberate and premeditated acts of a mature individual … carried out for the purpose of personal financial gain, and involved an ongoing course of conduct." Your offending for those matters was committed whilst you were on parole and, at the time of the last three offences, whilst you were on bail.
53Similarly, for the current offences, some offences were committed by you during the period when you were still on parole following the sentence of the Court of Appeal on 15 September 2008, and further offences relating to the Drew brief were committed after you had been charged by way of summons by Sheen, and whilst those charges were pending a court outcome. This is an aggravating feature of your offending.
54The sentencing comments of the judges both at this court and at the Supreme Court remain entirely apposite to the current offending. You have not been deterred from reoffending. Conversely, your response each time following release has been to reoffend in a more serious and extended way.
55In mitigation, I have taken into consideration the matters urged upon me by your counsel, including:
· Your plea of guilty, for its utilitarian effect and demonstration of your desire to facilitate the course of justice. Despite coming at a late stage, that is, into the third week of a contested trial, and only then in the face of the introduction of a very accurate photo identification which resulted in the discharge of the jury, it has still saved the community time, money, inconvenience and witness anxiety from a much more extended trial and further trials. By entering into negotiations with the prosecution and agreeing to the current indictment, a further two prospective trials on multiple count indictments have been avoided.
· The continuing love and support you have received from your family, who have been very hurt and humiliated by your conduct over the years. Their compassion and grace in the face of your behaviour is highly commendable and should provide you with some encouragement for reform.
· Your re-engagement with your family demonstrated by the care that you have shown for your aged mother, relieving other family members during the time you were on bail, and the feelings of remorse, shame and desire to assist others you have expressed to them. Whilst your past history, including early and accelerating degrees of criminal involvement following your release from prison, causes me considerable scepticism about your capacity to convert these noble expressions into actual behaviour, I nonetheless accept that at least this is an encouraging aspect and should be respected and given some weight.
· Some admissions that were made to police in your interview with police in October 2012.
56Whilst your conduct does not involve the aggravated circumstances of a classic breach of trust of vulnerable citizens, and the parties directly affected are financial institutions, this does not diminish the moral culpability and serious nature of your deceptions and attempted deceptions.
57Justice Osborne, at the time of your Court of Appeal sentence, explained the issue as follows. "Credit fraud of the type in issue strikes at the foundations of the modern consumer economy. The fraud … imposes a burden upon the credit system, not only directly affecting financial institutions, but also indirectly affecting honest users of that system."
58The basic purposes for which a court may impose a sentence are punishment, deterrence, being both specific to you and general to deter others, rehabilitation, denunciation and the protection of the community. In sentencing, I must have regard to a range of matters such as the seriousness of the offence or offences, your culpability, your personal circumstances and those of any victims. I am required to balance the interests of the community in denouncing criminal conduct with the interests of the community in seeking to ensure that as far as possible offenders are rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
59In all the circumstances here it is clear that principles of both specific and general deterrence and denunciation of your conduct by the court should feature prominently. By reoffending, and at an increased level and so swiftly after your last sentence, commencing even whilst on parole, you have demonstrated a contumelious disregard for the law and its institutions. You have expressed to your family a desire to turn your life around; however the objective reality appears to me that your prospects of rehabilitation are not encouraging.
60I have attempted to balance the need for proper expression of the above principles within considerations of totality and the need to avoid a crushing sentence. You will be 62 next month and prison will be likely to get more depressing and difficult for you. I am mindful of the possibility that further time might be directed by the Adult Parole Board in respect of your last sentence.
61Mr Hall, could you please now stand.
62On Charge 11 of dishonestly influencing a Commonwealth public official you are convicted and sentenced to two months' imprisonment. This sentence starts today.
63On Charge 13 of dishonestly obtaining delivery of articles, you are convicted and sentenced to five months' imprisonment. This sentence also starts today.
64On each of Charges 1 and 2, the State offences of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, you are convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
65On Charge 3, the State offences of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, you are convicted and sentenced to four years' imprisonment.
66On each of Charges 6, 8 and 9, the State offences of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, you are convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
67On each of Charges 7, 10, 12 and 14, the State offences of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, you are convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
68On Charge 4, the State offence for attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception, you are convicted and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.
69On each of Charges 5 and 15, the State offences of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception, you are convicted and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
70On each of Charges 16 and 17, the State offences of obtaining property by deception, you are convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
71On each of Charges 18 and 19, the State offences of handling stolen goods, you are convicted and sentenced to three years' imprisonment.
72On Charge 20, the State offence of possess false document, you are convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.
73Charge 3 is the base sentence. I direct that one year of the sentence imposed on Charge 2, one year of the sentence imposed on Charge 4 and 6 months of each of the sentences imposed on Charges 17 and 18 be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on Charge 3 and upon each other. The sentences are otherwise concurrent.
74The total sentence is seven years' imprisonment for the State offences and I declare that this sentence commences immediately upon the completion of the sentence imposed on Charge 13. I direct that you serve a minimum period of five years' imprisonment before being eligible for parole.
75Pursuant to s.16E of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) and s.18(4) of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), I declare that the period of 787 days, not including today, be reckoned as time already served under this sentence and I direct that the fact of this declaration and its details be noted in the records of the court.
76Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, but for your pleas of guilty the total effective sentence over all charges that would have been imposed is nine years' imprisonment with a minimum period of seven years to be served before eligibility for parole.
77At the plea hearing, two disposal orders and an order for the payment of compensation to the Community First Credit Union in the amount of $15,247.13 were sought. I have made those orders today. Identity crime certificates pursuant to s.89F(1) of the Sentencing Act were also sought on behalf of the witnesses whose identities have been used in the offending, and I have also signed those certificates today. You may be seated for the moment please, Mr Hall.
78MR DEVLIN: As Your Honour pleases.
79MR LAWRENCE: As Your Honour pleases.
80HIS HONOUR: Is there anything else from either counsel?
81MR DEVLIN: No, Your Honour.
82HIS HONOUR: Do you want a moment to check those numbers before I leave the Bench? Mr Devlin, is that expression that the State sentence commences immediately upon the completion of the - I think it is Charge 13, the Commonwealth sentence, the correct expression?
83MR DEVLIN: I believe ‑ ‑ ‑
84HIS HONOUR: For the sake of certainly it will be five months from today - is that expressed correctly?
85MR DEVLIN: Yes, Your Honour. I think that's - I believe that's clear and it's consistent with the Commonwealth sentencing.
86HIS HONOUR: Yes, all right. Mr Hall you will have to leave the court now.
87MR DEVLIN: As Your Honour pleases.
88HIS HONOUR: Thank you. 10.30.
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