Director of Public Prosecutions v Hilson

[2022] VCC 1056

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

 Revised

Not Restricted

 Suitable for Publication

AT SHEPPARTON

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 21-02092

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JACKSON PAUL HILSON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE LACAVA
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	23 June 2022
DATE OF SENTENCE:	5 July 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hilson
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 1056

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject: burglary and theft

Sentence: 3 years imprisonment with a non parole period of 2 years.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. D'Arcy
For the Accused	Mr C. Grant

HIS HONOUR:

1Jackson Paul Hilson, you have pleaded guilty to the three charges contained in Indictment C2114158.  Charge 3 is a charge of burglary with intent to steal for which the maximum penalty is imprisonment for 10 years. Charges 5 and 8 are each charges of theft for which the maximum penalty for each charge is also imprisonment for 10 years.  You committed Charges 3 and 8 with a co-offender, Kevin Grose.   He was also charged with those offences on the same indictment and he also pleaded guilty to those charges as well as a number of other charges which he committed alone, and two related summary offences.  He will be sentenced separately.  I regard Grose as the principal offender in your offending.  He planned the offending but you went along with him.

2The offending involved in the three charges you have pleaded guilty to all occurred on 18 November 2020 at Charlton.  You were arrested and charged on 21 November 2020 and you were remanded in custody where you have remained.  I heard your plea in mitigation of sentence on the Shepparton circuit on 23 June 2022.  As at that day you had served 579 days' imprisonment by way of pre-sentence detention.  You have now served 591 days' pre-sentence detention.  More 19 and a half months.  This comes after you had been released for about 11 days after having served four months' imprisonment for earlier, unrelated offending.  This is your first lengthy term of imprisonment.

3You are now aged 28.  At the time of offending you were aged 26 years.  When arraigned you admitted a number of prior convictions from three previous court appearances in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court.  You have prior convictions for driving offences, drug trafficking, cultivating cannabis and dishonesty offences.  Your prior offending evidences an offender who commits this type of offending to maintain a drug addiction.  You have previously received community based dispositions designed to assist you to rehabilitate from drugs, as well as combination sentences also designed to assist you rehabilitate.  Notably, eight days before the offending for which I must sentence you, you were before the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court where you were sentenced for driving and dishonesty offences, and offending whilst on bail.  You received a combination sentence of four months' imprisonment, time served, in combination with a Community Corrections Order for a period of 18 months commencing on
9 November 2020.  So this offending occurred eight days after the passing of that sentence and when you had barely commenced upon that Community Corrections Order.

4The circumstances of your offending are contained in a summary of prosecution opening dated 10 May 2022.  That document was read to the court by the learned prosecutor, and your counsel accepted that the prosecution opening is accurate and forms a proper factual basis upon which I can proceed to pass sentence.  In those circumstances it is not necessary that I here, again, set out in full that which is contained in the prosecution summary, and I will do so only in an abbreviated way.  These sentencing remarks should, however, be read in conjunction with what is set out in the amended prosecution summary, which was tendered in evidence and marked as Exhibit A. 

5At the time of offending you were living in Bendigo.  On 18 November 2020 you and Grose entered an unattended rural property in Adams Road, Charlton, where you both gained access to premises and sheds on the property  (Charge 3 Burglary with intent to steal).  Grose stole a number of firearms and you have not been charged with theft of those firearms, but together, you and Grose stole other items being tools, a sprayer unit, car wheels, tie-down straps, a wire strainer, three bags of dog food and various calibre ammunition.  You stole a Nissan Navarra vehicle, which was later located being driven by you in Hoppers Crossing (Charge 5 Theft of a motor vehicle).  When arrested you denied knowing that the vehicle was stolen.  You also denied having been to Charlton.  Police searched your home address but nothing from the burglary was located.

6This offending is serious.  It would appear to have been planned and targeted a remote unattended farm premises.  You appear to have been intent on stealing anything that could relatively easily be converted into money, no doubt to finance a drug habit.  As I say, it is aggravated somewhat by the fact it occurred so soon after you had been released from prison to commence a Community Corrections Order.  I was told by your counsel, Mr Grant, and accept, that it was not your idea to commit these offences but you went along with it at a time when you were drug affected.  I accept that to have been the position.  Mr Grant accepted that the offending was serious, given the offending by you was committed in company with Grose, and so soon after your appearance in the Bendigo Magistrates’ Court, only eight days earlier.

7In sentencing for crimes of this kind the court must have full regard to deterrence (both general and specific), denunciation, protection of the public, just punishment and your prospects for rehabilitation.  For reasons that I will shortly come to, I regard your prospects for rehabilitation as being at best, guarded.

8Importantly, you have pleaded guilty to the charges.  The charges resolved into a plea after numerous committal mentions.  You had a contested committal on 29 September 2021. Negotiations resolved into a plea in January/February of this year.  Although you did not indicate an intention to plead guilty at the earliest possible opportunity, I nevertheless treat you for sentencing purposes as having pleaded guilty at an early time.  For that you are entitled to receive, and will receive, a reduction in sentence, which I will refer to when I pass sentence shortly.

9By your pleas of guilty you have saved the time and costs of a trial.  By your pleas of guilty you have taken responsibility for your crimes and you have advanced the administration of justice.  I accept there has been some delay in disposing of this matter and that you have had these matters hanging over your head for some time without the benefit of finality.

10Further, your pleas of guilty come at a time where the courts have a considerable backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.  The disposition of these charges has been somewhat fragmented because of this backlog and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.  By pleading guilty you have not added to that backlog and you are entitled to receive a noticeable reduction in sentence for having pleaded guilty to the charges in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

11Further, your time served has been entirely through the pandemic in the result that your imprisonment has been more burdensome because of lockdowns in prisons, restrictions on movement within prisons and lack of visitors.  I was told and accept you have not had any visits, and nor have you been able to undertake any courses that might have assisted your rehabilitation.

12I accept that you are remorseful for your conduct.  All of these things go to mitigate the sentence you will receive and need to be taken into account in arriving at an appropriate sentence.

13Mr Grant filed with the Court a helpful outline of his submissions in writing, together with a psychological report from Carla Lechner dated 15 April 2022.

14You are now 30 years of age and you were aged 28 at the time of offending.  You grew up in Bendigo in a family with two sisters.  Your counsel described your upbringing as being unremarkable in a stable family environment.  At age two years you were diagnosed ADHD.  Your parents separated in 2016 on an amicable basis but this is said to have saddened you.  Your parents still live under the same roof together and remain supportive of you and you will live at their address when released from prison.

15You have been in a seven year relationship with a woman from age 19 but the end of that relationship is said to have had a marked effect upon your mental health.  This corresponded with you engaging in  self-destructive behaviours, self-medicating and the commencement of you offending.  Your substance abuse and dependency on it escalated from this time.

16You appear to have had an unremarkable but good education in Bendigo and you were active in sport.  After completing Year 12 you completed an apprenticeship as a plasterer.  You later commenced your own plastering business in partnership with a close friend.  The business was unsuccessful because of personal issues faced by both yourself and your business partner.

17Your path to drug addiction is a well-worn one.  Regrettably, this Court has before it many offenders who have progressed to drug addiction down the same path. You began experimenting with cannabis aged 17.  This rapidly escalated to everyday usage.  By age 18 you are said to have been smoking up to
3 grams per day.  At its peak you were smoking 6 to 7 grams per day.  You ceased cannabis use aged 25.  As a teenager you engaged in binge drinking.  You also began using ecstasy, and then moved to methamphetamine (ice) in a social partying setting.  As is often the case this then moved to smoking half
a gram a day three days a week.  In 2020, whilst in custody, you are said to have developed a dependency on the drug, buprenorphine.

18You told psychologist, Carla Lechner, that when released from gaol, about a week before this offending, you were picked up from the gaol by friends, who immediately supplied you with drugs.  You also told her that you felt so ashamed at having again used the drugs they gave you that you immediately lapsed and continued to use drugs and you were drug affected at the time of this offending.  Regrettably, this helps explain your offending but it does not excuse it.

19Ms Lechner opined you currently present with symptoms of stimulant use disorder in early remission in a controlled environment, adult ADHD and a major depressive disorder.  I accept her opinion that you would benefit from involvement with treatment services.

20I was told, and accept, that whilst on remand you have worked as hard as possible on your rehabilitation with a view to remaining abstinent from drugs on release.  You are working as a mentor with disabled prisoners and your drug use is stabilised whilst you are on the methadone program.

21I have taken all of this into account in arriving at the kind of sentence I should impose.  In all of the circumstances I have taken the view that I should fix an appropriate period on parole to enable you to be supervised upon release by the Parole Board.  Provided you receive appropriate counselling and treatment for your drug addiction, I think your prospects for rehabilitation are guarded but otherwise reasonable.

22In passing sentence it was not suggested that I should do otherwise than impose a total effective sentence and fix a non-parole period.

23On Charge 3, burglary with intent to steal, you are convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two and a half years.

24On Charge 5, theft of a motor vehicle, you are convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months.  Any licence that you hold to drive a motor vehicle is cancelled and you are disqualified from obtaining a licence to drive for a period of 12 months.

25On Charge 8, theft of various items, you are convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months.

26I direct that six months of the sentence imposed on Charge 5 cumulate upon the sentence imposed on Charge 3, making a total effective sentence of three years' imprisonment.

27I direct that you serve a minimum term of two years' imprisonment before being eligible for release on parole.

28I declare there has been 591 days' pre-sentence detention of the sentences passed this day and direct that 591 days be reckoned as having been already served of the sentences passed this day and be entered into the records of the court and deducted administratively.

29For the purposes of s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991, I state that had it not been for your pleas of guilty to the charges I would have sentenced you to a term of imprisonment of five years, and I would have fixed a minimum term of three and a half years' imprisonment before being eligible for parole.

30Are there any questions arising out of that, Mr D'Arcy?

31MR D'ARCY:  No, Your Honour.

32HIS HONOUR:  Mr Grant?

33MR GRANT:  No, Your Honour.

34HIS HONOUR:  Very well.  As I say, I will leave it up to both of you to get in contact with my associate to arrange a time to deal with this compensation issue.

35MR D'ARCY:  As the court pleases.

36MR GRANT:  Thank you, Your Honour.

37HIS HONOUR:  Very well.

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