Director of Public Prosecutions v Hassan
[2021] VCC 873
•25 June 2021
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR 21-00430
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ILIAS HASSAN |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE TINNEY |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne |
DATE OF HEARING: | 18 June 2021 |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 25 June 2021 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v HASSAN |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2021] VCC 873 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Kidnapping, recklessly causing injury, intentionally causing injury x2. Plea following sentence indication hearing.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms S. Johnston | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | Mr D.P. Rofe | Chester Metcalfe & Co. |
HIS HONOUR:
1Mr Hassan, this matter has had an unusual history in this sense, that it came before me on 18 June for a sentence indication hearing, and that hearing in fact resolved in a favourable sense for you in that I said that were you to plead guilty to the form of the indictment and the related summary offence that was in existence at the earliest available opportunity, you would not be likely to receive an immediate term of imprisonment.
2That meant a particular thing in this setting, because you had already served 336 days in relation to these particular charges as they were at that time, and really the thrust of the submission that was being raised by your counsel on the day was if I said that I was not likely to imprison you immediately that would be over and above the term of 336 days.
3That is essentially that I would not be returning you to prison. That was the thrust of it all and I accepted that I had the ability to give that sort of indication in the circumstances. There seemed to be some support for that from Justice Forrest as he was at the time of the case of R v McLaughlin[1].
[1] [2016] VSC 85
4So I gave that indication. The matter was stood down very briefly. You were then you were arraigned on the indictment and you pleaded guilty to the charges on that indictment, being criminal damage, a charge of recklessly causing injury, two charges of intentionally causing injury and a charge of kidnap pursuant to common law.
5There was also a relevant summary matter of driving a vehicle without an experienced driver sitting beside you. You were an L plater. The prosecution relied on the summary of offending that had been prepared for the sentence indication hearing which is dated 15 June.
6I am not going to go through and restate all of the sentencing facts. It was an agreed statement then and it still is. What is apparent is that you were 22 years of age at the time of these pretty unpleasant events that took place in September and November of 2019.
7Charge 1 and Charge 2 related to a pretty nasty piece of controlling offending of your victim who had received a text from a family member telling her or asking her to remove herself from a violent relationship. She replied saying she was scared and wanted to come home.
8You saw that she was texting her sister and you have grabbed the phone and told her you would teach her a lesson and threw it onto the floor, smashing it. Your victim was angry then and pushed you. You then pushed her back and she went to the ground and you then grabbed a can of deodorant, an aluminium can as I infer it, and struck her to the back of the head and actually caused a wound that bled.
9That is an extraordinary piece of conduct really. So that is the subject of the first two charges on the indictment. The relationship then broke up. Charge 3, 4 and 5 are a later event where you caught up, the two of you, in November. You had sent an email to her saying you needed to see her because there was a dog I think that had been joint property in the relationship t.
10She agreed to meet you and you were sitting in the car together and having a talk and during the course of the discussion you learnt that she had kissed another male. You became angry and you punched her in the face with your fist.
11That was to the right eye socket and is the subject of Charge 3, intentionally causing injury. It caused a bruise to her right eye. She told you to drive her home. You did not. You drove in the direction of her home, but you noticed the bruises and realised you could not take her home.
12You continued to drive around whilst arguing and then parked in a secluded area and remained there for a couple of hours arguing. It is all pretty nasty stuff actually. At one point when you were outside the vehicle you grabbed her around the throat with both hands, squeezed her neck until it made her cough.
13That caused bruising to her neck but you then hit her again to the head and face about five times causing bruising and then pushed her into the car. She did not want to get back in the car. That was hardly surprising and she wanted to get away.
14She opened the door and ran. You pursued her and dragged her back into the car, and that was the commencement of the common law kidnapping that started off with a punch in that early phase and then pushing her back into the vehicle.
15It was not a particularly lengthy exercise as the summary makes clear, and after the kidnapping came to an end you still remained in company together and drove around to various sites and you were seen behaving in such a way as to alarm a complete stranger who came and approached your ex-girlfriend and asked if she was all right. That person was of the view that your victim was at risk, and it was that person who was so concerned to see what you were doing and your behaviour that she actually rang the police.
16Your victim went into her house and made sure that her father did not see the visible injuries that she had. She went up to her room but she was seen the next morning by the police who observed visible injuries.
17So it is a nasty piece of conduct actually. It is not isolated, as I have said, it is these number of occasions spread out over these dates. You declined to be interviewed by the police, which was your right, on 21 December when you were arrested.
18As I have said, you were 22 years of age at the time, and the maximum penalties are set out. Your victim does not wish to make a victim impact statement and it would seem on one view of what I have just been told a moment ago, she might even entertain that there might be some future contact between you.
19You want to be very careful about that because if you have future contact with her, we will meet again, and I will send you to prison because you will breach the order that I am going to put you on. There is no victim impact statement but it is plain that this was unpleasant, nasty, frightening behaviour.
20It is a category 2 offence, the kidnapping, which means in the absence of finding your way into one of the exceptions set out in s5(2H) of the Sentencing Act a term of confinement is required and it cannot be imposed in combination with a community corrections order. That is how seriously that offence is viewed.
21The prosecution's attitude to sentence really I think coincides with what I am being asked to do, that is to consider. They say it is open to me to impose a term of imprisonment on the kidnapping charge. It cannot be combined with a community corrections order because the circumstances do not permit that under the legislative framework, but then to place you onto a separate CCO for the other offences where there is no prohibition.
22So the Crown are saying that is open to me and that is of course what Mr Rofe was urging me to do. Ordinarily someone sitting where you are sitting would be in a state of suspense wondering what would happen. Would you be going to prison, would you not be? You know you are not because I told you you are not.
23So in a way I abbreviate the sentencing remarks that I am delivering, and the major reason is that you have spent a significant period in custody. You went into prison on 21 December 2019 and you were in custody from that date.
24We skip over all of 2020 because you were in custody throughout 2020, and you were bailed on 19 February of this year. So it is a significant period of time that you have spent in custody, not all of it relating to this matter, but in a way that is by the by.
25You were there throughout that time, so you were a 22 year old when you went in, and you are a 24 year old now, and there was 336 days of presentence detention referable to this matter, and it will soon be referable to a particular sentence I impose on the kidnap charge. So there is that that is a significant factor.
26The other significant factor is that you were bailed with very strict conditions and spent about I think four months in what might be described as a quasi-custodial setting. It is not as tough as a prison obviously, of course it is not, but it was a rehabilitation facility called The Cottage and it attracts principles set out in the case of Akoka[2].
[2]Akoka v The Queen [2017] VSCA 214
27There is a pretty strong policy reason to want to reward people, particularly young people like you, who are actually doing something to try and deal with aspects of addiction to drugs, such that there is to be regard had to that time in a residential rehabilitation facility.
28Not equating it with a term of imprisonment, it does not equate with a term of imprisonment, but there were some decent limitations on movement and freedom of movement, and it is appropriate that it be taken into account in a way consistent with that decision that I have mentioned.
29A very brief plea was conducted. It did not need to be a lengthy one because I had already had the various matters raised in the course of the sentence indication hearing that persuaded me to give the indication that I gave.
30So again it would have been futile for your counsel to be going right back to the start and taking me through everything that he ordinarily would take me through in the hope of persuading me to adopt a certain disposition. He already had me there because I said that that is what I would do - not to return you to prison and deal with you in such a way as you got credit for the time that you have served in custody and you head off on a community corrections order.
31He adopted the written submissions that he had prepared for the sentence indication hearing, dated 17 June. He adopted those and made some additional submissions. Along the way he withdrew any reliance on a couple of matters within that document, reliance on the case of Bugmy[3] and any reliance on the case of Verdins[4]. He conceded they had no application here, but he relied upon the report of Gina Cidoni, that is a report dated 3 May of 2021. He relied upon three reports from Maria Hutchison who is connected up with The Cottage, including a final report that was a pleasing report.
[3]Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37; 249 CLR 571
[4]R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102; 16 VR 269; 169 A Crim R 581
32He also placed before me the decision of Justice Taylor who released you on bail back on 19 February of this year. That is the case of the application for bail by Ilias Hassan[5]. It was useful for me to have that and it also set out aspects of your background as well. I am not going to go into all that material in any great detail now at all. There would be little utility in me doing it, even in circumstances where I had not already announced what I was going to do, but in such a setting where I have said that I am not going to return you to prison, I just think it is a waste of your time and mine, working my way through all that material. I do not think your background has been the best background going around. I take into account as far as I am able to - I am not going to set it all out in any great detail. It is a significant feature of this case that you have done what you have done up at The Cottage under those strict conditions.
[5]Re Hassan [2021] VSC 66
33I have not mentioned your criminal history. You have one, no question about that. It is not the longest or the most relevant, for that matter. There are some driving matters and you have received a couple of community corrections orders which you have not complied with. The most serious offence really that I look at there is an affray. There is a criminal damage, and of course that is relevant to what I am dealing with as well, but it is not a matter of any enormous significance. It is worrying that you have breached two community corrections orders, because if you breach a third, mine, it is going to end very badly for you - I hope you do not.
34Your criminal history is not that lengthy and the reason why you do not get the full credit for all the time that you have spent in custody is that there had been a supervening sentence that was imposed. You received a six-month term in the Magistrates' Court which was successfully appealed to this court in May of 2020 and it turned out to be a three-month term of imprisonment, so that three months is not something that I can declare because it is not referable to this matter. I can take it into account when applying the principle of totality of sentence.
35I am really not going to go through your background in any detail at all. You are still a young man, that much is obvious. You are only 24, 22 at the time, so that is a matter of real significance. There is no debate as to whether prison is warranted in this case. It is, there is no question about this. The issue at the sentence indication hearing was whether there was a need for me to return you to prison. That is really what it amounted to.
36Was the pre-sentence detention when viewed in conjunction with the time that you had spent up at The Cottage and when considering the totality of the period that you have been in custody, was that all sufficient to leave open to me a community corrections order in relation to Charges 1 to 4 and the summary offence and a straight term of imprisonment equivalent to the time that you had spent by way of pre-sentence detention in relation to the kidnapping offence?
37As you know, I answered that in the positive the other day and as I said earlier, you pleaded at the earliest available opportunity after I had given that indication and so I am bound to do what I said I would do. Or putting it another way, I am bound not to send you to prison immediately. I cannot and I am not regretting having given the indication. I granted it because I thought it was appropriate and I still do believe it is appropriate to proceed in this way.
38As I have said, I am not going to go into the level of detail that I normally would, either as to your background or the matters in mitigation. They are pretty obvious here. You have pleaded guilty. It is a plea after a sentence indication, someone waiting to see what the lay of the land is like before pleading, but it is still a guilty plea and I take that into account in the ways contemplated by the case law.
39There is no trial necessary and there is a big delay in trials getting on. There is a big backlog of offences, and a person pleading guilty amidst the global pandemic is worth greater recognition still in such a setting for the various reasons set out in the case of Worboyes and two other decisions of the Court of Appeal last week.
40So there is the utilitarian benefit of pleading guilty, there is the fact that witnesses are not going through the experience of being called. You have spared the witness the experience of giving evidence - all of them, actually - so there is a saving of the time, the cost and the effort associated with a criminal trial, and you have taken responsibility, so I take these matters into account in your favour.
41I am prepared to find that you are remorseful for what you have done. There is no reason for me to think otherwise and I am satisfied that there is remorse present here. As I have said, you are a young man, and that is important, actually 22 at the time. You are not a teenager and you are 24 now, but you are still a young man with a pretty limited prior history and one who has made some real efforts in terms of rehabilitation. The principles applicable to the sentencing of youthful offenders are those principles set out in cases such Mills[6] and Azzopardi.[7] With some sensible modification given your age, they have application to my task.
[6]R v Mills [1998] 4 VR 235
[7]Azzopardi v R [2011] VSCA 372
42It is a big step to send a person back to prison in this sort of setting, especially someone who is a youthful or relatively youthful person with a relatively limited history and who has made some real efforts in terms of rehabilitation. So I apply those principles to my task.
43As I have said, you have a limited history, but as I have said, part of the history is that you failed on two community corrections orders so that is of some concern. You have made those efforts since being bailed and I have that, in combination with the time spent in actual custody so from December of 2019 through to February of 2021. You were in prison, really for the first time, and then you exit into a very strict bail setting. So really, when I look at all of that, it is closer to 550 days or thereabouts by my reckoning. I might be out by a few days here or there but it is a very decent period of time that is covered by that period of prison and then The Cottage.
44It is a very significant step then in that setting to send you back to prison. If I had to I would, but I do not believe I have to because I have got 336 days referable to the sentence that I will pass on the kidnap. So the aspect of totality of sentence is a significant matter in this case.
45When I consider the general matters that I normally deal with, probably again in more detail than I am dealing with this afternoon, the purposes of sentencing and the things I have to have regard to. I have to have regard to the maximum penalties, obviously, they are set out before me. I have to have regard to the impact of crimes, but I have to have regard to the sentencing purposes and, as I have said, rehabilitation is one of those purposes. It is often overlooked by those in the media but it is in the Sentencing Act and there is an increased weight given to rehabilitation for a youthful offender, and especially one who has made some efforts in the community and hopefully who is heading in the right direction away from crime, so I give that appropriate weight.
46I have to punish you; that is important. I have to denounce your conduct. That is especially important actually. You have to get into your head. We will just not tolerate you behaving in this way with an intimate partner and you have got a bit of a worrying issue. I see that there is reference to a couple of intervention orders in the assessment report so I have to denounce your conduct.
47The conduct that I am dealing with was serious criminal conduct. It is intimate partner domestic violence. On one occasion she is in her own home, the other she is out in a public place, so denunciation is important.
48So is general deterrence. There is no basis for me to significantly moderate general deterrence. That is the need to deter other people from doing as you are doing, and there are enough of those who do, I am afraid. There is an epidemic of intimate partner and family violence in this state. I have to deter you as well, because you are the person who has committed these crimes. I do not want you committing further crimes in the future so I have to pay weight to deterring you and also to protecting the community from you, but again I think there can be some moderation of those two purposes because of your age, your lack of any particularly relevant history, and the efforts that you have made since being bailed - and the very fact that you have been tucked away in custody for all of that time leading into the grant of bail.
49The most serious offence by far here is the kidnap and it has a very significant maximum penalty. As I have said, it is a Category 2 offence and one of the problems, at least at the time when I first considered the sentence indication hearing, was that I could not combine a term of imprisonment with a community corrections order for that offence unless you fell within one of the exceptions, and you do not. That is conceded.
50I do not regard it as a particularly serious example of that offence but really all I am saying is it is not a particularly serious instance of what is inherently a serious offence; it is inherently serious to kidnap someone. Given the passage of time since that event, the fact that you have spent that time in custody continuously from December 2019 to February of 2021, including 336 days referable to this particular matter, and then I have that period beyond spent in rehabilitation leading into the bail variation, that was made on 10 June for you to go and live with your sister, you seem to be back in the workforce to some extent.
51You claim that you are drug free and that you are in a much better state. You are still judged to be a high risk of offence by those who assess you, but I said that in such a setting I would not return you to prison and I will not.
52I have received the two reports. I probably should mark those as exhibits I think. I know they are not prosecution exhibits but I will mark the community corrections order assessment report together with the Forensicare report as Exhibit B, and I have read those reports and I take them into account. As I say, you are judged to be a high risk of reoffending, but the nature of the order has yet again been explained to you. There is reference to prior interventions in terms of the two prior community corrections orders that you have had; there is reference to family violence intervention orders where you have got two female victims; and bear this in mind. I will explain the terms of the order in a moment, but there are two reasons why you will not be able to contact the victim in this case, two reasons why you must not in any way communicate with Ms Alvarez.
53The first of those is any such communication, if it was occurring in a setting such as to actually breach the intervention order, would be a very bad move. But do not worry about the intervention order. You are going to be prohibited by my order from making any contact with her. That relationship is over. Were it the position that she was to contact you, you would tell her that and hang up.
54Having mentioned all those matters, I have considered all of the matters raised on your behalf, and as I have said, there is no suspense in any of this, you know what I am going to do because I have announced it when I dealt with the sentence indication. You have been assessed as suitable for such an order and that is what I am going to do.
Sentence
55On the charge of kidnapping, which is Charge 5 on the indictment, you are convicted and sentenced to 336 days in prison. To avoid any doubt, I immediately declare that you have served 336 days by way of pre-sentence detention in relation to that matter. You have served that sentence already so that will not have you heading out the door to your right.
56On the remaining charges, that is Charge 1 to 4 on the indictment, together with the related summary matter relating to your not having an experienced driver alongside you, I am going to convict you and I am going to admit you to a community corrections order. You have had these orders explained to you in the past and maybe you have not listened, or maybe you have listened but thought that really it was not that important. You had better listen pretty carefully to what I am telling you. It is going to be this order for a two-year period from now. It commences now and finishes on 24 June of 2023.
57You must attend at the Reservoir Community Corrections Services. The address will be on the document. You will get a copy of this within two clear working days after the commencement of this order. Attendance is probably by phone at the moment. There is a phone number on the document. Ring them without fail, if not this afternoon then on Monday morning, and they will give you further directions.
58As you know, these orders have mandatory terms that apply to everyone who gets them. You have had them twice, you have breached them twice. The first of those is you must not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment. You stay out of trouble. If you commit any other offence that could be punished by imprisonment, and almost every offence is these days, then you will breach this order. That is pretty straightforward.
59You must report to and receive visits from the community corrections officers. You must, as I have said, report within two working days of the order starting. Do it by phone either this afternoon or first thing on Monday. You must let them know within two clear working days of your changing address or job. You let them know, all right? Do not just move and not keep them abreast of that. If you are going to move you let them know that you are going to move, either jobs or your residence. Just keep them informed.
60You are not allowed to leave Victoria without first getting permission to do so from the community corrections officer. If you get up and leave without it you will breach this order, and you have to obey all their lawful instructions. They are the conditions that apply to everyone who gets one of these orders and they apply to you. Breach any of those, you breach the order.
61Then there are the conditions that apply in addition to those mandatory terms and I have considered these pretty carefully. I am going to have you under supervision for the period of this order. You will under the supervision of a community corrections officer for two years. I am going to have you undergo assessment and treatment, including testing for drug abuse or alcohol abuse. If they say do testing, you do testing. If they say go to treatment, you go to treatment. You do not argue the toss, you do what they tell you to do.
62You must undergo mental health assessment and treatment as directed by the regional manager. You must participate in programs or courses that address factors relating to the offending, and that would include a Men's Behaviour Change Program, and listen to this very carefully. You must not contact or associate with Jessica Alvarez either directly or indirectly for a period of two years. She is off limits. You do not communicate with her, you do not contact her, you do not associate with her and you do not do that either directly or get someone else to do it on your behalf. Do any of those things, you will breach this order.
63I have considered whether I should be imposing unpaid work in a setting such as this. I think ordinarily I would, but this is an unusual situation actually. It is true that I am imposing the prison term in relation to the kidnap but I am not spreading the punishment between that offence by way of prison and a community corrections order, it is not a combined sentence in that respect. But you have been in custody for all of that time. That was a very punitive sort of thing for a person of your age to be in custody for close to, I think, 14 months, and then to get out and actually to engage in that rehabilitation. It seems to me in those circumstances that there is a bit of a risk actually in giving your directions to do unpaid work. It may well distract from the treatment that you might well need, but secondly it might also I think conceivably bring you into contact with people who perhaps I would prefer you not to be in contact with, other criminal types of a much more hardened nature than you.
64In the circumstances, what I have decided to do is not to impose any unpaid work. There has been a significant punitive component, the subject of the significant period of time that you have spent in custody and it is that and only that, that convinces me that it is open here to have no unpaid work. I think it is better, given that you have got out of custody after all that period, for you to be focusing on your ongoing rehabilitation. In a way you might be lucky in that respect. There are far less punitive components attached to this order than ordinarily there would be.
65They are the various terms and the conditions. Breach any of them, you breach the order. I will give you a chance in a moment to speak to your counsel to make sure that you understand these things and for me to learn that you are consenting to this order. If you are consenting to it then I will release you in this way, but not without at least telling you this. I do not want anyone who I put on one of these orders breaching it and not knowing what might have happened. You will know because I am telling you, and I think you know because your counsel has already told you.
66Please do not think that you are going to come back to court and have what happened in the Magistrates' Court on one occasion, just have the order confirmed. Do not expect that will happen. These orders are not easy. They are breached by a lot of people and you may breach it. I hope you do not, but you may breach it. If you breach any of those terms or conditions you will breach this order, and if you do that, firstly that itself is a serious criminal offence punishable by, I think, a maximum of three months' imprisonment, but that is not the real sting. The sting to it is this. You breach this order and we will meet again, because you come back in front of me, you do not come back in front of the magistrate, you come back in front of this court, this judge. This judge who will view the footage of what I am saying at the moment, this judge who will look at the material that I have had regard to in determining that I can deal with you in this way. So do not put yourself in that position.
67There is a very limited range of options open to a judge dealing with a breach of a community corrections order and I am telling you the most likely outcome for you if you breach this order is I will cancel it. That probably sounds good. 'What's wrong with cancelling the order? That sounds like a good way out of it'. The trouble is I cancel it and then I resentence you. I would be resentencing you on all the charges that you are being placed on this order in relation to, so criminal damage, intentionally causing injury, two of those charges, the learner driver offence and the recklessly causing injury. I would then need to resentence a person who had breached their third community corrections order. If that occurs, I cannot tell you exactly what I would do, I would need to assess the nature of the breach, I would need to pay attention to what was raised on your behalf, of course I would, so I cannot say exactly what I would do. I would need to act judicially and listen to the matters and make various assessments.
68I would need to consider whether the breach was a particularly serious one and whether you had made real efforts on the order. I would do all those things, but the best thing for you to do is to work on this theory. This is your chance. Do not breach this order and come back thinking you will get another chance. Do not expect that. Work on the theory that if you breach this order you will come back, you will be sitting in that dock, and I will send you to prison, and I will send you to prison potentially with a sentence of a dimension where you will be serving a non-parole period. You can avoid all that.
69If you come back in breach there is no credit that you are going to get for the 336 days that you served in custody. That is the subject of the sentence on the kidnap offence. So as I say, breach this order and you should have an expectation that you will be brought back to court and sent to prison and sent to prison for a quite sizeable period.
70Let me just ask. There are no ancillary orders, Ms Johnston, are there?
71MS JOHNSTON: That's right, no ancillary orders.
72HIS HONOUR: All right. Mr Rofe, do you need to speak to your client to explain any of this at all, or not?
73MR ROFE: I think that would be wise and if I could please have that opportunity. I'll go through - - -
74HIS HONOUR: Pop down and do it now then. Are you asking for longer?
75MR ROFE: If I could just turn my back.
76HIS HONOUR: Yes, go and have a chat to him, that is all right.
77MR ROFE: Thank you for that, Your Honour. Mr Hassan consents to the order. Just for the record, I advised on directly and indirectly and have implored upon him no social media, no text messages, no phone calls, no emails, nothing of that kind, because that would be considered contact.
78HIS HONOUR: It would.
79MR ROFE: And if it pleases the court, I'd just ask if Ms Johnstone were to be able to perhaps relay, if it pleases the court, to Ms Alvarez not to contact him either so that there is no temptation.
80HIS HONOUR: I was going to deal with that in a moment. Yes, I think that has to be done. She has to be told that that is it, he is prohibited from having any contact, she is prohibited really from having any contact. If she has contact, she is going to be creating all sorts of trouble really.
81MR ROFE: Yes.
82HIS HONOUR: Anyway, your client consents; yes.
83MS JOHNSTON: Thank you. Certainly, Your Honour. I will relay that to the complainant. Your Honour, I just have one matter to raise which I have been trying to find the answer to while Your Honour was relating judgment. In relation to the summary offence, I wonder if that carries a disqualification or suspension period of the learner's permit with that.
84HIS HONOUR: I do not think it does, does it?
85MR ROFE: No. It was raised on the last occasion and it is wholly discretionary and from memory Your Honour was minded not to impose.
86HIS HONOUR: No, I am not intending to. Unless there is some mandatory basis, and I do not believe there is, I was not inclined to make an order against his licence. It is best that he go and actually get his full licence and get on with it, really. Yes, all right, thank you.
87MS JOHNSTON: Thank you, Your Honour.
88HIS HONOUR: Mr Rofe, can you take that down then, I will just have it handed down, and have him sign the order please.
89MR ROFE: Yes, Your Honour.
90HIS HONOUR: Mr Hassan, just stand up if you could please. Do you agree then that you have signed this order?
91OFFENDER: Yes.
92HIS HONOUR: Do you consent to entry into this community corrections order?
93OFFENDER: Yes.
94HIS HONOUR: Just have a seat then for a moment and we will get a copy of that for you. I have taken into account the fact that Mr Hassan has pleaded guilty to these various matters. It seems to me I probably have to make a s6AAA declaration in the circumstances given that I have imposed at least in part a term of imprisonment. Had he pleaded not guilty and been found guilty of these various matters in a trial setting, I would have sent him to prison for three and a half years. I would have fixed a non-parole period in that setting of two years, so that is to be entered into the records of the court.
95Are there any other matters I need to deal with from either of you?
96MR ROFE: No, Your Honour.
97MS JOHNSTON: No, Your Honour.
98HIS HONOUR: All right, thank you. That completes the matter.
99Mr Hassan, I hope you can keep free of the drugs. I hope you can keep working and staying out of trouble. You have got to try and work and build on what you have established up at The Cottage. I have not really gone into the ins and outs of the community corrections order. You have breached two of them, so the only advice I really can give you is this. Just comply with it. Your Corrections officer, they are not a policeman, they are there to give you some assistance in the course of this order. If you happen to have, for instance, some issues in terms of any sort of relapse in terms of drugs, if you are having difficulty in terms of drugs or alcohol, get some help, because if you do not you are going to breach the order. If that is an issue, you need to get some assistance and they will be able to assist you in relation to it, so treat them with respect, obviously. They will have you on their records as someone who has breached two of these orders so do not mess around. I have not loaded you up with unpaid work. There is no unpaid work.
100I am focusing on your ongoing rehabilitation and treatment but you do not want to meet me again, all right? Let's not meet again, because if we do not meet again that would be a good thing for you and for me. If we meet again it will be in this court. It will mean you have breached my order and it will most likely be ending with me sending you to prison. You can avoid that by complying with this order. You are 24 years of age. Get your life back in order. It is not too late by any stretch of the imagination. But it is two years, this order, so I am not going anywhere. If you breach it I will still be here and then we will meet again and it will likely have an unhappy ending for you, so just do your best on the order and you should really be able to comply with it. If you can, stay out of trouble for two years and comply with this order and remain drug free for two years, you will be heading into a very different phase of your life it seems to me, but anyway best of luck on the order.
101They are the matters I need to deal with. I think I will adjourn the court then till midday on Monday. Thank you.
102MR ROFE: As the court pleases.
103MS JOHNSTON: As Your Honour pleases.
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