Director of Public Prosecutions v Hope

[2022] VCC 426

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT LATROBE VALLEY

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 21-00828

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LANCE HOPE

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	30 March 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Hope
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 426

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:

Catchwords:

Legislation Cited:

Cases Cited:

Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Crown	Mr N. Hutton	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr B. Newton	Stephen Peterson Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Lance Hope, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery, and two charges of theft. 

2You also have pleaded guilty to two uplifted matters of unlicensed driving in respect of each of those.  I sentence you to be imprisoned for a period of seven days, to be served concurrently with the sentence imposed upon the indictment.

3You are now 23 years of age, and you were 20 years of age at the time of the offending.  I accept that you have pleaded guilty to a settled indictment, and you must get the benefit of that.  The utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty in these circumstances is significant. There is also Worboyes to consider and COVID whilst you have been in jail.

4Insofar as remorse is concerned, I suspect that is somewhat problematic, but because of the plea of guilty I will give you the benefit of the doubt in relation to that.

5Even at your young age, you have an extensive criminal history, involving Youth Justice over an extended period of time.  I note that even though the criminal history of is of a significant number of pages, a lot of it seems to be double-ups or breaches or the like, so perhaps not as bad as it looks.

6You have pleaded guilty in the situation where the decision in Worboyes applies, and there must be a significant discount given for that.  You have also undergone, or now been in custody, for nearly three years all up, in times of COVID, and I accept that that has been a difficult period of time for you, and you have also had significant health worries, at least, which have now turned out to be benign.  But again, it has affected the way you have undergone your previous sentences.

7Since you have been in custody, you have been sentenced on two other matters, and I take them into account very much, in the sense of Renzella.  One of those matters was an 18-month sentence, though as I understand it with a 12-month minimum term.  You were not considered for parole because these matters were still outstanding, and that is a very significant Renzella situation, in my view.

8The offending itself, as clearly armed robbery is always a serious offence, but it seems to me that this is very much at the lower end of armed robbery.

9On 3 March 2019, a Mr Macklin was driving his car to a BP Service Station.  He was known to you.  You asked if you could get a lift to Morwell, and he said he could only take you to the servo in Newborough.  He drove you and two others, who are both known to me, along Wirraway Street, which is also well known to me, and you asked him to turn into Hawker Street.  He was then asked to pull over, and in the vicinity of 2 Hawker Street, you pointed and said, 'He isn't home.'  And the male in the passenger side rear seat, one of the Mobornes, then said words to the effect of, 'Let's take the dog for his car.'

10The male in the rear passenger seat then got out of the vehicle, and spoke to you.  You were still sitting in the front.  The victim noticed that that male was in possession of a metal Vernier gauge, a tool used in motor-vehicle – in rebuilding motor-vehicle engines, and he was holding it at waist height.  I accept that it was clearly visible to both you and the victim, as the interior light of the vehicle was on.

11You then reached into the ignition area and took the keys.  You told the victim to get out of the car, and he got out of the driver's seat, and you got in.  He was a disability pensioner, and you then, effectively, drove him home, or at least to the end of his street and then went off with the vehicle.  You were originally charged with aggravated carjacking.  I accept that this is, I think originally indicated, a settled indictment.  Over the next couple of days, you went to two service stations and essentially stole petrol to a total value of around about $100.

12You were in custody for around about four to five months immediately after this offending, from 19 March 2019.  You were then released out for about two months, as I understand it.  You were then taken back in, got another Magistrates' Court sentence, got out on bail again, were taken back in again, and got another Magistrates' Court sentence, and I have already referred to that.  All up ‑ ‑ ‑

13HIS HONOUR:  You could not see that – your former co-accused just popped in.  All right.  I do not know.  Yes, all right.  That will be revised out, I can assure you.

14I have before me a victim impact statement from the owner of that vehicle, who – which in effect was written off.  It cost him a lot of money in that regard.  Tools were taken, and all sorts of objects.  It clearly had a significant effect on him, and I note – it is pointed out to me clearly by your counsel, and at the committal, the victim said that you were not threatening to him, and that you seemed to be “sort of” protecting him.

15Clearly, as I have indicated, armed robbery is a serious offence, per se, but this I think is certainly at the lower end of it.  You have now done something like three months short of three years in custody, and have a total of 259 days of pre-sentence detention for this matter.

16Your counsel has provided helpful submissions in terms of your background, and I do not need to go into great detail.  You were born, as I understand it, in West Australia.  You have never met your Indigenous mother, and you have an intellectually disabled father who did his best to try and bring you up.  That proved difficult, and you spent lots of time with other family members, paternal grandparents and the like.  You were homeless in your formative years.

17You had a very interrupted primary schooling, and you at one stage were placed into care.  You were a secure ward of state, or probably would have still been at that stage, for a period of time.  You have obviously got the decision of Bugmy going very much in your favour.  Bugmy as the High Court has pointed out, always applies throughout, and community protection is the only thing that can interfere with it.

18When you were about 13 or so, you were a passenger in a stolen motor vehicle which was involved in a collision, and there were three young people killed in that.  I am aware of that situation, and in fact have dealt with cousins of other people who were killed.  That has clearly had a significant effect on you over the years.  You have been diagnosed by Dr Cunningham as having a post-traumatic stress diagnosis, and that would appear to have been a diagnosis in place since you were around about 14.  And it is hardly surprising in those circumstances.

19Since then, you have been in and out of Youth Justice.  You have been in and out of gaol.  You have been homeless at times.  And basically struggling.  This is a situation where in a perfect world I would have you under supervision on parole, or on a community corrections order or the like, but I think it has reached the point now where totality demands you be shown some consideration in all of this.

20I do not think I have to go through all of those matters in detail.  The prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you.  One starts to become anxious that at your age you have got so many priors, the risk of you re-offending, if you get out and catch up with various bros that you have been with in the past is probably going to be pretty high.  But that is really a matter for you, Mr Hope.  Not much that I can do to assist in that situation.

21The offending calls for the application of general and specific deterrents, denunciation, and appropriate punishment.  In all the circumstances of the matter, and taking of account the very helpful submissions of your counsel, as well as having read a couple of times the report of Dr Cunningham is on file for all concerned is to simply give you a straight sentence.  I do not want you walking out without having put some thought into this, because you have now been in for a significant period of time.

22What I am going to do:  on the charge of armed robbery, I sentence you be imprisoned for a period of 10 months.  On each of the charges of theft, 1 month each to be served concurrently, which gives a total effective sentence of 10 months.  I direct that 259 days be reckoned as having been served under that sentence, which means that you have effectively got about a month to get your head around being released, and make sure that there is appropriate accommodation for you. Hopefully you will have a job to go to.

23I am very conscious of your background, and as counsel have explained to you, I am very experienced with trying to deal with people in this situation.  But when it comes down to it, you do not want a circumstance where you are 35 years of age, still in gaol, and your sole topic of conversation is which gaols are the best ones to be in.  All right?  You do not need that.

24Life expectancy for someone in your situation is about 50.  If you keep using, you keep this up, you will not even get anywhere near that.  All right?  That is putting it bluntly, Mr Hope, but bearing in mind that your background and the like, I think I can talk straight to you like that.

25So thank you Mr Newton for appearing for you, and putting you usual effort into it.  And having had the honour of appearing for you.  But I think that is about all I can say at this point in time.  There is no other orders I need to make?

26ASSOCIATE:  6AAA.

27HIS HONOUR:  Sorry?

28ASSOCIATE:  6AAA.

29HIS HONOUR:  6AAA.  Eighteen months.  Straight.  All right.  There is nothing else you need to do?

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