Director of Public Prosecutions v Hall

[2024] VCC 856

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

(Not) Restricted

 Suitable for Publication

AT BAIRNSDALE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 24-00907

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JAMES HALL

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE M.P BOURKE
WHERE HELD:	Bairnsdale
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	11 June 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hall
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 856

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 F. Cameron
For the Accused	Ms I. Downie

HIS HONOUR:

1James Hall, you are to be sentenced for eight charges of damaging property under s197, sub-s1 of the Crimes Act.  The maximum sentence is 10 years imprisonment.

2You are also to be sentenced for summary offences of failing to correctly store long-arm firearms  (maximum sentence 12 months imprisonment); failing to correctly store long-arm cartridge ammunition  (maximum sentence 12 months imprisonment); possession of a silencer without permit.  (maximum sentence
two years imprisonment); possession of a prohibited weapon without exemption  (maximum sentence two years imprisonment). 

3You pleaded guilty before me on 6 June.

4When originally arrested and questioned by police in March 2023, you admitted the offending.  There were committal proceedings in the period November 2023 to April 2024.  The matter resolved to pleas of guilty to this indictment on
22 May.  The matter was very quickly brought on for plea hearing also on
6 June. 

5You receive the benefit of that early cooperation and your plea of guilty.  It has facilitated the interests of justice, accepted responsibility and expresses remorse.  I accept that you are genuinely remorseful. 

6At your plea hearing, Mr Cameron, for the Crown, tendered a written prosecution summary.  Mr Sullivan, for you, tendered a number of letters of character reference. 

7The circumstances of offending are set out in the tendered Crown opening, which is Exhibit A.  My own summary may therefore be shorter.

8In the period July to October 2021, you and co-accused Brayden Crockford damaged by shooting eight different power transformers in the surrounding Bairnsdale areas.  They were owned and managed by the company
AusNet Electricity Services Pty Ltd.  You used a long-arm weapon, or weapons, to do so.  Which of you or whether both of you shot is not to the point.

9Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Crown opening state as follows:  'The total cost to SP AusNet to remove and replace the eight damaged transformers was valued at $129,371.40.  The potential impacts on the power network, and the potential risk to the community when critical infrastructure, being transformers, are maliciously damaged, include fire, electrocution, power outages and network surges'.  Fortunately, these potential impacts did not come to be.  On one occasion, Charge 5, there was a loss of power supply to Optus equipment. 

10The offending occurred in mid-to-late 2021.  After about 18 months, a covert police investigation had placed you as persons of interest.  You were spoken to by police operatives in March 2023 and made admissions.  I accept that those admissions were important to the investigation and prosecution of you.

11In March, you were also arrested and charged by local police in respect of the summary offences.  Search of your car and home revealed an unstored Remington rifle, unsecured cartridge ammunition, a silencer (at your home)  and two swords, also at your home.  There were a number of other firearms legally stored.

12You are now 25 years of age, although younger, at 22, when you committed the indictable property damage offences.  You have no criminal record.  You have overcome difficulty in your life.  Your parents separated when you were very young and you have had no relationship with your father.  You have struggled academically at school and, again, with the course work in a butchering apprenticeship after leaving school.  That was in, or at the end of, Year 9.  You have poor literacy.

13However, you transitioned to employment in the scrap metal industry and seemed to have excelled.  You have been employed for seven years by the same business.  You are manager of that yard.  You have completed an engineering certificate and have acquired in your work a number of trade and related skills.  The character evidence tendered speaks highly of your work ethic, competence and of you generally.  As raised by me in the plea hearing, part of that evidence powerfully describes your commitment to community and courage in fighting serious bushfires in East Gippsland in 2019.

14You are an enthusiastic shooter and hunter and will suffer the loss of your licenses and, given the nature of this offending, one predicts considerable difficulty in obtaining firearm licenses into the future. 

15This was serious offending;  random, inexplicable destruction of high potential damage to your community.  The cost of repair was high.  Your offending was not isolated and continued for a number of months.  There was potentially dangerous use of firearms.  Sentencing considerations of your moral culpability, deterrence, condemnation of what you did and proportionate punishment of it are relevant.  A sentence of imprisonment was my original intention. 

16However, I have been persuaded against that by a number of factors.  They include the following.   

a)    Your plea of guilty, cooperation and  what I find, is genuine remorse.

b)    Your relative youth, now and at the time of offending.

c)    In that context, the delay since offending of now approximately three years. The investigation was, I find, necessarily prolonged; however, no part of the delay can be properly attributed to your fault.  You have not reoffended and have good prospects for rehabilitation.  

d)    The evidence of your character which, as stated in your hearing, I found particularly strong.

17I have decided to impose a community corrections order and thereby not imprison you.  There is a need for significant punitive aspects, for example, in duration and a condition of community work .  That need is to reflect the serious circumstances of offending and its risk to community.

18Having considered and weighed what I see to be the relative matters, I sentence you as follows.  On the eight indictable offences of property damage, and also all four summary offences, I convict you and impose a community corrections order of two-and-a-half years' duration.  The usual terms apply.  There is an additional condition that you perform 250 hours of unpaid work.  In setting the number of work hours directed, and the duration of order in which to complete them, I have taken into account your employment obligations but also the need, as I stated earlier, to impose appropriate punishment.

19Had you not pleaded guilty, I would have imposed a prison sentence of
six months.  Take a seat now, please.  That community corrections order can be printed out.  There's a disposal order, is there?

20MR CAMERON:  No orders sought, Your Honour.

21HIS HONOUR:  No.  No.  All right.

22MR CAMERON:  Nothing to be disposed and no compensation sought.

23HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Thank you.  All right.  Now, we'll print out the community corrections order then I've got to put it to you again, it won't take as long, and then ask you whether you understand it and whether you agree to it.  So that's happening now.  Thank you.  All right.  Stand up again, please.  Now, you've heard what my sentence is.  In short, it's this:  you're to be released on a community corrections order.  It will last from today until
10 December 2026. You must attend at the Bairnsdale Community Corrections Services office in Macleod Street, Bairnsdale within two days of today.  The usual terms are that you must not commit another offence for which you could be imprisoned during the time of the order.  You must comply with, that is obey, a regulation that says you don't attend any worksite affected by alcohol or drugs or in possession of illegal drugs.  You must report to, and receive visits from, Community Corrections.  You must, as I've said, report to the relevant community corrections centre within two days.   You must let Community Corrections know within two days of a change of address or job.  You must not leave Victoria without getting permission from Community Corrections to do so.  You must in short obey all of their lawful instructions and directions.  The additional condition is that you perform 250 hours of unpaid community work over that period of 30 months, or two-and-a-half years, as you are directed by Community Corrections.  Now, do you understand that?  And do you agree to it?

24OFFENDER:  Yes.

25HIS HONOUR:  Well, I'll get you to sign the order, please.  All right.  Now,
that – we're going to copy those now, are we?

26VOICE:  (Indistinct words).

27HIS HONOUR:  Can we do that quickly?  Or is it going to take a long time again?  Yes.  Can we – is going to happen quickly?

28VOICE:  Yes.

29HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Good.  Thank you.

30VOICE:  Thank you.

31HIS HONOUR:  It can happen here, can it? 

32VOICE:  (Indistinct words).

33HIS HONOUR:  No.  It's going to happen out there.  Take a seat.  All right.  All right.  Now, have you got one for Mr - - -

34VOICE:  No.  He's fine.

35MR CAMERON:  Thank you, Your Honour.

36HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Now, stand up.  I just want to say something to you.  It must be very clear to you that an important part of what happened the other day was that people turned up at court and spoke very highly on your behalf. You're very fortunate that happened and no doubt you've earned it.  It would be an awful thing if you let them down and didn't honour the chance that you've been given.  All right.  You can go now.  All right.  Well, I'll go and get my materials for the trial, Mr Cameron.

37MR CAMERON:  Yes, Your Honour.

38HIS HONOUR:  I won't be very long.

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