Director of Public Prosecutions v Hansen

[2017] VCC 1477

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-00918

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

RILEY HANSEN

---

JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE GUCCIARDO
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	13 October 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hansen
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1477

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---

Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Accused	Ms K. Youngson
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. Cordy

HIS HONOUR: 

1Riley Hansen, you pleaded guilty to two charges of handling stolen goods, three charges of burglary, one charge of theft of a firearm, six charges of theft, one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence and two charges of negligently dealing with proceeds of crime.  The offences span over a period of about a month, between late October 2016 to late November 2016. 

2You also pleaded guilty to related summary offences, being Charges 12, 23 and 29 of summary charges laid against you.  They related to failing to obey lawful directions of a police officer, possession of a cartridge ammunition and dealing with proceeds of crime - some cash, $5,500 on 5 November 2016.

3The prosecution prepared a summary for purposes of your plea.  This document was read out, tendered and exhibited.  It provided a summary of your offending during the relevant period.  I will not recite it in detail.

4It suffices to say for purposes of the sentence that at the relevant time you were 37 years old and living in a small regional town.  On the evening of 18, 19 October 2016 a burglary occurred at a service station in Wycheproof.  A Ford Falcon car was stolen along with spare vehicle parts.

5In late October you were approached by police, checking upon a Ford Falcon in Blackburn.  You were the driver and whilst police were checking the vehicle you fled.  The ford was the vehicle stolen from Wycheproof.

6In late November when a search warrant was executed at Long Gully premises, motor parts from the burglary were also located.  You had sleeping arrangements at those premises and you were then arrested.

7In the period between 26 and 29 October, proceeding the search, a burglary occurred at any address in Blackburn.  This was the same street in which you have decamped when questioned by police during that time frame; the 27th.  The burglary took place in an unoccupied home.  Several items were stolen including a shotgun, a .22 pistol, a white Holden ute, wire, wine in a cask, jewellery, a knife, skateboard and a flat screen TV.

8On the 29th in the early hours a resident of Ballarat observed you and a female in a white Holden ute.  You then pulled a shotgun from the back of the vehicle and placed it between the console and front seats.  You were then handed a handgun by the female and you placed the gun down the front of your pants before driving away.

9The next day on the 30th you went to Avoca, an Avoca address and having entered into a yard there you broke into a Commodore sedan and stole tools, which were contained in Repco tool kit.

10At another address in Avoca a witness saw the white ute bearing the same plates as had been observed by the witness in Ballarat on the day before and that person saw you running from the back of a private residence carrying a whipper snipper, jerry cans to the ute, placing them in the back of the car and driving away.  Very soon thereafter a police car patrolling the streets of Avoca were notified as to the white ute and the officer's saw you driving north.  They activated lights and sirens to intercept you but you immediately accelerated and drove away erratically.  The grass trimmer, vacuum cleaner and two jerry cans were stolen from the private residence.

11Another home in Avoca had been burgled and a number of household items had been stolen, including $70,000 in cash during the period 27 October to November 2.  However, the owner of the home also identified items in his garage which did not belong to him, including the grass trimmer, vacuum cleaner, two fuel containers, a motorcycle, a fridge and a number plate which the white ute was bearing when it was cited by the witnesses and the police officers who attempted to intercept you.

12At this address police found your fingerprints on a glass door.  The motorcycle and fridge had been taken from a burglary at another address in Avoca, between 20th and the 3rd of November.

13On 4 November you went to a service station in Gisborne to purchase a motor vehicle which had been advertised online.  Police who were patrolling the area spoke to you but you again fled the scene at the service station.  You had placed a backpack in the car before fleeing.  Inside it police found 8 grams of methyl amphetamine and $5,000 in cash.

14Police then searched your address on 22 November at Long Gully.  You were found in the garage of that house, which had been converted into a bedroom.  During the search police found two car muffles, oil and fuel filters, two nail guns, auto parts, assorted screw and containers, a tool set, two swords, an ammunition belt, gun cleaning equipment and leather gun case, $700 in cash were also found, together with cartridge ammunition, which included rounds for shotgun and .22 firearms.

15On that 22 November you were arrested and interviewed at the Bendigo police station.  You mostly made no comment or denials.  In relation to Avoca you told police you considered yourself to be on the run, not having turned up in court when required and that you were on drugs.  You were remanded.  Three committal mentions were adjourned and ultimately in May 2017 at a further mention, you entered pleas of guilty.

16The offences to which you have pleaded are serious criminal offences, particularly handling stolen goods, theft of firearms, trafficking in a drug of dependence.  Each of which carry 15 years' maximum imprisonment.  Burglary and theft each carry ten years.

17By these maximums the legislators have indicated the gravity of these offences.  These offences are prevalent in our community.  They are often committed on soft targets.  They interfere with peoples hard worked for property and infiltrate the security and safety of people's homes and premises and have flow on effects, in terms of insurance costs, consequential crimes, they create the sort of social fracturing which damages the fabric of community with its dishonesty and disregard for the rights of others.

18The community is fed up with behaviour like this and rightly seeks protection, just punishment and retribution for these criminal offences and the court must seek to deter others who are liked minded from behaving in this way as a primary consideration.

19I take your plea into account.  It was offered after a period of negotiations so not at the earliest opportunity but at the time, nevertheless, when it has utilitarian value of having avoided a trial.

20I accept it may be some evidence of remorse in itself.  Such assessment is often difficult and hard to distinguish from mere practical regret.  Nevertheless, your plea will attract a discount on your sentence.

21You have admitted a criminal history, which is very substantial, spanning from 1996 with a theft - theft and burglary, and theft are recorded in 1997 and 1999, in which year you received a suspended sentence at age 19.  There is then a ten year gap to 2009 when you are then fined for recklessly cause injury and assault by kicking.  In 2011 you have driving offences, again your sentence being suspended.

22However, in late 2012 you received two years imprisonment with an 18 month non-parole period for a number of charges, which involved dealing with proceeds of crime, receiving stolen goods, burglary and theft, theft of car, assault, reckless cause injury, aggravated burglary, fail to answer bail, as well as dangerous driving.  That order was appealed from and in March 2013 this court, allowing your appeal, fixed a total effective sentence of 18 months with a non-parole period of eight months, which you had practically already served.

23However, the leniency of the court and this successful appeal seems to have had little effect on you, only some months later you were fined for thefts of cars.  In 2015 you breached the alcohol interlock condition.  You were placed on a community corrections order and then in early 2016 you were again imprisoned for theft, failure to keep register of firearms, possessing a controlled weapon, drive while suspended, fraudulent use of plates, committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, breaching the interlock condition, possessing a controlled weapon, dealing with proceeds of crime, possessing and trafficking amphetamine; all which breached the community correction order of March 2015.

24The court again was merciful, bearing the community correction order till 22 February 2017, ordering some work hours and ordering another period of supervision and rehabilitative conditions.

25These offences you committed in October and November on this indictment were therefore in breach of the community correction order and the opportunity the court had given you to attempt to rehabilitate yourself during that period.  It is clear that this history enlivens the principles of specific deterrence, as well as sheds light on your prospects of rehabilitation in the context of your personnel circumstances.

26You are now 38 years of age, you have two brothers.  You moved to Maryborough from Melbourne when very young, you grew up in central Victoria.  Your father was effectively a stranger to you whom you met when age 12.  He had spent seven years in prison for drug dealing offences.

27You left school at 16 and obtained an apprenticeship as a plasterer.  At 20 you started your own business, which around the year 2000 was very successful and busy.  And you got married, had two children who are now 14 and 8.

28You supported the family by employing your two brothers and generally you raised your family in a law abiding and productive fashion.  This is reflected in the ten years gap in your priors to which I have referred.  You had money and success.  However, the business began to flounder and fail.  This created stresses and strains with which it appears you did not have the wherewithal to overcome.  The stability of work and family you had built up began to unravel.  Your marriage broke down, you started to dabble in drugs.

29The courts have heard this story umpteenth times over the last 20 or 30 years and I was always puzzled at the choice that people make in those circumstance in relation to drug use.

30Both of your brother's moved away, one two New Zealand, one to the Northern Territory.  You took this departure to heart.

31From the series of property and other offences faced in December 2012 you have continued to offend, despite extended time on remand and the imposition of a community corrections order aimed at your rehabilitation.  I accept that you are disappointed and regretful at the turn that your life is taken.  But it must be clear to you that your intent not to replicate the criminal life of your father and the effect on his children, including you - upon your children has been undone by your own choices.

32Whether you desire to straighten out and return to happier times, to change your situation and have the opportunity to contribute to the lives and future of your children, will also depend on your choices.

33This sentence intends to punish you for you criminal behaviour.  It is not designed to crush your hopes for the future.  I accept that your recent history must mean that your prospects for rehabilitation, although guarded, can be good.  But you are still of an age which may enable some reclamation and rehabilitation.

34I accept, also, that you have begun - in the confines of reclusion - to exercise some good judgement.  You are a head billet in your unit, you are said to be drug free.  You have undertaken course which will help you on the way to consolidate relapse prevention.

35I take into account all the certificates, which were forwarded on your behalf, as demonstrating your current commitment to programs of change and strategies to assist you in relation to drug and alcohol use, as well as issues of communication, depression, anger management of a psycho education nature.

36I take into account the letters of references which were tendered from your mother and your cousin, which are impressive in their candour description, both of the positives in your character as well the clearly, dark and difficult areas which you need to address in order to make any progress.

37I also take into account the letters from Tamika Hopper who is hopeful of your future and Rosemary Neville, Tamika's teacher.  I have also read your own letter to the court.  I accept you have reflected on the effect of your behaviour on your children, the victims of your crimes and accept that you again turn to drugs and offending when you understood that you had breached your community corrections order.

38You failed to give the process and the court the same fair chance it had given you by putting you on a community corrections order in the first place.

39That was, if I might say so, an easy choice; the wrong choice and one which cannot provide an adequate explanation for your behaviour.  The court has no other alternative, as was properly recognised by your counsel during the plea, then to impose prison sentences for this offending.  Please stand.

40On Counts 1 and 2 of handling stolen goods you are convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment on each.  On Counts 3, 9 and 12 of burglary, you are convicted and sentenced to two years on each.  On Count 4 of theft of firearms you are convicted and sentenced to one year and six months.  On each of Counts 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 11 of thefts, you are convicted and sentenced to nine months on each.  On Count 13 of trafficking a drug of dependence you are convicted and sentenced to two years' imprisonment.  On Counts 14 and 15 of negligently dealing with proceeds of crime you are convicted and sentenced to six months on each.

41On the related summary offences, on Charge 12 of failing to obey a lawful direction you are fined $500.  On Charge 23 of dealing with proceeds of crime, six months.  On Charge 29 on possess ammunition, $300 fine.

42I order that the base sentence be Charge 9, that is a sentence of two years.  And I order that one month on Charges 1, 2, 3, 12, 4 and then one month on 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 11, one month of Charge 13 and one months of Charge 14 and 15, as well as one month on Charge 23 be cumulative on Charge 9; making a total of three years and three months.  I order a non-parole period of two years and two months.

43I declare that you have served, on my reckoning, 325 days by way of pre-sentence detention, excluding today and I will note those days in the record of the court.  They will be administratively deducted from your sentence.

44I have signed forfeiture orders, disposal orders and I have signed a forensic sample order under 464(ZF) of the Crimes Act.  Under that order an authorised police officer will ask you for a biological sample by way of a mouth scrapping.  It is not a painful procedure.  If you do not consent the authorised officer can use reasonable force to obtain a blood sample from you, do you understand?

45But for your plea I would have sentenced you to four and a half years, with three and a half years non-parole period.

46Mr Cordy, are there any other ancillary orders?

47MR CORDY:  The interference with the licence on the two charges that involve theft of motor vehicles, Your Honour.  So that is Charges 5 and 11.  So the requirement is that Your Honour is to either suspend or cancel any licence held by the accused and disqualify him for such time as Your Honour thinks fit.

48HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  In relation to Charges 5 and 11, which are in relation to thefts of cars, your licence is cancelled.  You are disqualified from obtaining a licence for a period of three and a half years.

49MR CORDY:  As Your Honour pleases.

50MS YOUNGSON:  As Your Honour pleases.

51HIS HONOUR:  I'll hand down the orders that I've signed.  Yes, you can remove Mr Hansen.  Thank you, Ms Youngson, you're excused, I have another matter to proceed with.

52MS YOUNGSON:  I'm grateful, Your Honour.

53HIS HONOUR:  You may leave the Bar table.

54MS YOUNGSON:  Thank you.

55HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

‑ ‑ ‑