Director of Public Prosecutions v Hermos

[2023] VCC 1611

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

  Revised

  Not Restricted

          Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-22-01878

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

PAUL HERMOS

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	19 June 2023
DATE OF SENTENCE:	19 June 2023
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hermos
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2023] VCC 1611

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:  CRIMINAL LAW – SENTENCE UPON PLEA OF GUILTY.

Catchwords:  Prohibited person possessing firearm – discharged firearm during aggravated burglary - serious example of offence - offender serving sentence for index offending - community protection – general deterrence.

Legislation Cited:                  Crimes Act 1958 (VIC); Sentencing Act 1991 (VIC).

Sentence:18 months imprisonment served concurrently with other state sentence currently being served.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	F. Cameron	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	T. Magazis	Theo Magazis & Associates

HIS HONOUR: 

1Paul Hermos, you are charged with possessing a firearm and using it during the incident the subject of your current sentence.

2Of course, you were a prohibited person at the time because of your criminal history, or for some other reason.  The law states that once you have had your right or privilege to possess a firearm removed because of some conduct, it is something that binds you and you must not possess or use a firearm until that order is complete, or that time period is complete. 

3It is one of the ways in which our community seeks to protect people from those who are perhaps not properly in control of every aspect of their life, from getting hold of a firearm and using it, and in this case, you did. 

4In any case, it is accepted that you are serving a significant period of time in custody for what you did that night and for the fact that you discharged the weapon in the home of a family in the middle of the night. This is a serious offence. 

5You have been sentenced for it, but the fact that you did so as a prohibited person, is another serious aspect of it and for that reason, and because of the position of the Crown and your counsel, I am going to impose a term of imprisonment.  That term will be 18 months. 

6The maximum penalty for this offence is ten years, and the purpose of the offence is to send a message to everybody that if you are on an order or you have, by some other way, become a prohibited person, then you must take your obligation seriously, that obligation being that you must steer clear of guns. 

7Given the length of your sentence I am going to impose that 18 months wholly concurrently. Therefore it will not extend your head sentence and it will not extend your current non-parole period, and so I will not make any further orders about setting a new period.

8At the end of the trial and your sentencing hearing, I made orders for forfeiture and disposal of various items so I do not need to make those orders again. I note you have got a bit under three years to go before you are eligible for parole and hopefully disposing of this case will mean that you are eligible for doing programs. 

9I have heard that you have been going well in prison.  You have been staying out of trouble and you have been keeping in contact with your family and that is very important and I hope that continues for you. 

10I will impose that 18 month sentence, make it wholly concurrent, and make no further orders. 

11The summary offence in relation to commit indictable offence whilst on bail with the aggravated home invasion.  That has already been dealt with so I will mark it struck out. 

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