Director of Public Prosecutions v Heaphy-Page

[2018] VCC 102

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-16-01715
CR-16-01784

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

OLIVER HEAPHY-PAGE
AHMED HASSOUN

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	14 February 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Heaphy-Page & Anor
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 102

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 H. Tighe	Office of Public Prosecutions
For Accused Heaphy-Page	Mr S. Kenny	Theo Magazis & Associates
For Accused Hassoun	Mr B. Johnston	David Barrese & Associates

HIS HONOUR:

1Ahmed Hassoun and Oliver Heaphy-Page, you have each pleaded guilty to a charge of robbery.  You, Mr Heaphy-Page, have also pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to obtain property by deception.  Those crimes carry maximum penalties of 15 years and five years respectively.

2You are 25 years and 30 years of age respectively.  You each must get the benefit of the plea of guilty.  Whilst remorse is extremely problematic in this particular situation, you must also, of course, get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty.

3You are both still relatively young in these sorts of terms and each of you has relevant prior convictions.  I take into account that there has been now a delay of some months since the matter was first listed because of the unavailability of the judge, and I of course take that into account.  I take into account also,
Mr Heaphy-Page, that you will be deported as I now see for the second time in the terms of the sentence that I impose upon you.

4A summary of the offending can be done in pretty short compass.  Mr Brett Capuano was a drug dealer.  He received a call from you, Mr Heaphy-Page, asking for help.  You wanted drugs and money.  He suggested meeting at the Punthill Road Apartments at South Yarra where he was residing.  Leading up to this day, he had been taking drugs and had been awake all night.  He left Carlton where he had been with a Jason Batement who was driving his vehicle.

5At that time, Capuano was selling drugs to make money and was semi-employed with his own business operating excavators.  I note that despite all this happenings, Mr Capuano is not being charged with trafficking in relation to all these matters and as always, that is of some concern to me.  In any event, that is not my problem.

6He went to the flats and parked the vehicle.  You, Mr Heaphy-Page, approached his vehicle.  You stood outside the driver's side door.  He noticed you had blood on your hands and apparently from an earlier altercation.  You said you needed money and asked for drugs.  He said he had a little rock and reminded you that, "I'm on the dole and I have loads of cash."  He said words to the effect, "Now you were going to embarrass me."

7A Toyota then drove up with a Mr Mohammed Nasery, who is to be sentenced later, and you, Mr Hassoun, as the front passenger.  In the Crown opening, it gives a description of the various people, which I do not need to go into.  You, Mr Hassoun, asked Mr Capuano to wind the window down of his vehicle because you wanted to hop in.  He found it intimidating and refused.  You returned to the car, came back immediately and said your name was Omar and wanted to sit in the back.  You opened the door and sat in the rear passenger's seat.

8Mr Nasery moved his car.  He got out and sat behind Mr Capuano.  You,
Mr Heaphy-Page, moved into the Toyota in which you had arrived. 
Mr Hassoun, you said, "Give us your drugs and your money" and he said he kept notice that he did not have any.  There was then some seat swapping and Mr Nasery asked for Mr Capuano's phone and wallet, which he then handed over.  It was about $45 and a Bank of Melbourne card.  He asked for the pin and gave in fact the wrong pin number, even though there was no money in the account in any event.

9Shortly after that, you, Mr Heaphy-Page, were engaged in a number of attempts to get money from that account, which obviously failed and again, I do not have to go into the details of all that.  You were all arrested and interviewed and essentially you, Mr Heaphy-Page, confessed to being there.  I do not think I need to take that much further either.

10As indicated in the course of discussion yesterday, this is the lower end of robbery in a situation such as this.  The criminal milieu in which it all took place and the victim was not charged with trafficking.  As indicated yesterday, this sort of conduct where someone decides to traffic drugs at 6.30 in the morning can be regarded as something of a business overhead.

11In any event, I have to sentence on the basis that a custodial sentence is appropriate.  You have both done a significant period of time in prison already.

12A victim impact statement has been provided by Mr Capuano and as I have said yesterday, I take little notice of that.  A lot of it is inadmissible and seems to me to be an element of Volenti involved in all this.

13In any event, crimes such as this due call for the application of general and specific deterrence and an appropriate punishment.  Each of you, as I have said, has a criminal history and whether you are going to remain petty criminals all your lives or not is really going to be a matter for you.

14In this situation, gaol is unfortunately inevitable.  Both of you are on remand for other matters and accordingly, a community corrections order would be a complete waste of time. 

15You, Mr Hassoun, have done 296 days and have approximately five months of Renzella time.  You, Mr Heaphy-Page, served 194 days with approximately nine months of Renzella time.

16Again, I do not think there is any real need to go through your histories.  Each of you are in custody on other matters, will be dealt with in the future and your prospects of rehabilitation and the risk of you reoffending, I think, will be a matter for certainly another magistrate and potentially at least another judge.  All I can really do here is sentence you for the objective seriousness of what you have done.  The fact of the matter is that you cannot do what you did and a gaol sentence is inevitable.

17The submissions were that time served was sufficient.  The Crown did not demur from that position and I think that that is appropriate.  Accordingly, I do not propose to go through your personal histories or anything along those lines.  Whether you rehabilitate is entirely up to yourselves and there is very little I can do about it at this stage.

18Accordingly on the charge of robbery, you, Mr Hassoun, 296 days and you,
Mr Heaphy-Page, 194 days.  On the charge of attempted deception, you,
Mr Heaphy-Page, 30 days to be served concurrently.

19I direct that 296 days be reckoned as having been served in your situation,
Mr Hassoun and 194 days in your situation, Mr Heaphy-Page.

20I could have gone this lengthy explanation of whose bail applications and all those sorts of things, but it seems to me to be a waste of time in this situation where everybody is of the view that just simply make an end of it.  What other courts do to you two in the future is a matter for other courts.  There is no much I can do to stop it.

21Accordingly, as a sentence to be passed, I would say that pursuant to s.6AAA in this overall scenario, though it is meaningless in a sense, I would have sentenced each of you to be imprisoned for a period of 15 months with no minimum term.

22COUNSEL:  Your Honour please.

23HIS HONOUR:  All right, look.  That is as simple as I can make it, gentlemen.  I did not want to sit here for an hour and a half going through all the dates.  But everything has been tendered, so if there is any queries, it is all on record.  I will make sure it stays there.  All right.  You can take them.  There is no other orders, are there?

24MR TIGHE:  There were disposal orders.

25HIS HONOUR:  I made those yesterday.  Yes, fine.

26MR TIGHE:  Yes, thank you, Your Honour.

27HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  All right.  Yes, you can take them now, thanks gentlemen.

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