Director of Public Prosecutions v Jackson

[2015] VCC 249

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

AT SHEPPARTON
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 15-00173

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

IAN JACKSON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY
WHERE HELD:	Shepparton
DATE OF HEARING:	4 March 2015
DATE OF SENTENCE:	4 March 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Jackson
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 249

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. O'Doherty	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr B. Grimshaw	Greg Thomas Solicitors

HIS HONOUR: 

1On 11 September 2014 you Ian Jackson went into the Subway store on Wyndham Street in Shepparton South wearing a black balaclava, gloves and carrying a baseball bat and a bag.  You had a large knife hidden away.  You ran to the counter yelling demands for money, as the shop assistant, Mr Sinh Dillon and Ms Rammage got money from the till particularly Mr Sinh Dillon, you hit him a number of times with a baseball bat.  You continued to threaten two young staff members demanding they tell you or show you where the safe was.  You produced your knife and forced two staff into an office area.  You saw a cash box and took it.  You also hit Mr Sinh Dillon again and then ran.  You got between 500 and $1000 and your counsel said seemed to you to be closer to $1000.

2The two young staff members and a customer in the store at the time were I infer from the material deeply traumatised.  Police viewed the CCTV footage in the Subway store and suspected that you were the offender.  You were arrested on the 16 September, you denied being involved.  Your phone records revealed that you were arranging to get drugs within a short time after the armed robbery. 

3Ultimately you did plead guilty, doing so at an early point, at a committal mention.  Your plea of guilty will be acknowledged by a lesser punishment being imposed that otherwise would be the case.

4In assessing the gravity of your crime I say again that people who work in shops and necessarily with cash must have a sense that if armed offenders terrorise them then the courts will play a role in denouncing the criminal conduct and deterring others from embarking on a similar course. The courts will usually do this by imposing terms of imprisonment.

5Your use of the baseball bat on Mr Sinh Dillon was particularly nasty.  Seems at the time of this armed robbery you were on bail from a series of burglaries, thus this offence of armed robbery is more serious because you were on bail.  I am told you will plead not guilty to those matters in the Magistrates' Court and is to be heard later on this month.

6You are now 25 years old.  You have a very relevant prior conviction from May 2011 and the County Court judge imposed a 14 month sentence, wholly suspended for 18 months and a community corrections order.  That was for an aggravated burglary in which you had a weapon.  In addition there were charges of assault, of theft and damaging property. Your much earlier court appearances were in the Children's Court in 2006, 2007 and a minor matter in 2008.  And in more recent times, that is 2014, May and June, before the Magistrates' Court at South Port in Queensland for assault and for trespass which resulted in fines.  The County Court matter I was told was one incident involving in an aggravated burglary at the home of a male connected to a relative of yours.  The Children's Court matters were when you were drinking to excess and with the wrong crowd. This is perhaps an appropriate point to speak of your upbringing.

7Essentially your counsel argued that despite the deprivations as you grew up you had limited involvement in crime and have long periods of stable living with a significant history of work.  Your Aboriginal parents were greatly troubled by alcohol; your father was violent to your mother and in your presence, who often had to flee with you and the three siblings.  She would it seems reconcile only for the pattern to be repeated.

8Accordingly, your education was disjointed as you moved from one school to another.  But you applied yourself, eventually moving from year 10 to TAFE courses. You did three years of a landscape gardening apprenticeship, you were in a relationship and were raising two children with your partner.  You had stable accommodation, and were working full time.  Binge drinking, a problem for you in your teens was behind you.

9Your work history, which included a lengthy period of time as a landscape gardener and also as involved in delivery of bread or unpacking the bread is to your credit. But I was told you developed serious anxiety for which you sought medical treatment.  The doctor prescribed medication and referred you to counselling, which you attended.

10Despite this you fell into using methamphetamines, as you considered it relieved your symptoms.  You were not working and quickly fell into financial problems as you wasted money ice.  You lost your accommodation, your car and were in a desperate state. In those circumstances you came upon this idea of robbing the Subway to get more money for drugs, or to pay for what you already owed.

11Addiction to drugs to no excuse, but it once again it reveals to the community what a scourge ice is. Young men with little criminal history find themselves in gaol for committing serious crimes, and young shop assistants are terrorised and left with mental scars. 

12While on remand for a period of 169 days, your grandmother died. She was an important stabilising influence on you and you were grieving at a loss and also that you were imprisoned you were unable to attend her funeral.  It brings home a starkly to you what a waste crime that leads to prison is.

13Your relationship is not made easy by your circumstances.  You will have to work hard to restart with your partner. The key is to put ice behind you, as you did with alcohol.  You will need help with that, and your mental health. If you commit to rehabilitation in those areas you can, as you have shown before, stay away from crime, get work and provide for your family.  Mr Jackson, it is entirely up to you.

14The new sentencing regime in this state allows for sentencing judges to more flexibly punish and facilitate rehabilitation by tailored programs.  Your counsel urged for a community corrections order and one to commence now or as soon as possible.  Prosecution do not argue against a community corrections order but submit that the 169 days on remand is insufficient to meet the gravity of what you did.  In the end I agree with the prosecution's submission.

15I am persuaded that a lengthy and onerous  community corrections order, in culmination with imprisonment is the just and appropriate punishment for your crime of armed robbery and sufficient in the circumstances to denounce what you did, that is this terrible crime of threatening those young people in the Subway.  It will also deter you and others, and also hopefully reclaim you as a young man with some prospects.  Your youth is an important factor in my sentencing consideration.  If you are reclaimed and start again as you have shown in the past, to get work and stay away from crime then that is in the community's interest.

16Mr Jackson I impose the following penalty upon you.  Please stand.  In committing the crime of armed robbery you were sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months.  In addition I am placing you on a three year community corrections order, I will set out all of the terms and conditions of that shortly when a document is produced.  In an essence you will have to do 250 hours of unpaid work and also submit to assessment and treatment for mental health problems, for drug addiction and be under supervision of the Office of Corrections.  These are not easy or soft options Mr Jackson, and once I have outlined them to you I will be more than once emphasise that you must do each and every one of those hours and every aspect of the rehabilitative programs.  And if you do not, then you will come back before me to be resentenced.

17Now you have already served 169 days in custody and I reckon that period of 169 days be part of the sentence that I have just imposed.  I will ensure that this declaration that I have just made is entered into the records of the court so the prison authorities are left in no doubt that you have already served 169 days of the 12 months that I have imposed.

18Had you pleaded not guilty to this crime and then found guilty of it I would have imposed a sentence of four years with a minimum term of two years and six months. The Crown had made application that you provide a forensic sample, and I intend to grant that application.  That means that the authorities will take a scraping from your mouth, and from that your DNA will be extracted and kept on a database.  I grant the application made by the Crown because of the gravity of the crime you committed, prior criminal history that you have and also it is in the interests of justice that your DNA remains on a database.  The document will be provided to you after I have signed it, but I need to make clear to you that when the authorities come, to get the sample from you, if you do not cooperate with it they are authorised to use reasonable force to get the sample.  The way through the course is just to cooperate with taking the sample.  Is there anything else required?

19MR O'DOHERTY: No, Your Honour.

20HIS HONOUR:   Take a seat Mr Jackson the document will be produced and if you consent to the order being made then you will sign it and return back to the prison and be released after to the expiration of 12 months to commence the penalty.

21Mr Jackson, the community corrections order that I have placed you on, the following are conditions that apply to everyone on such an order.  You must not commit another offence which you can be imprisoned during the time that this order is in force; that is three years from the end of your sentence of imprisonment.  Almost every offence you can think of is punishable by imprisonment even if a magistrate does not give it to you.  So it is quite simply, if you commit another crime and you come back before me, you may have picked up that a new sentencing regime as it were applies in Victoria, such that orders of this kind are more available for those that commit crimes of the kind you committed.  But I should assure you, that should you breach this, what some might think, lenient sentencing option then that leniency will not repealed.

22I will just sentence you for committing the armed robbery and it be more in terms of years than months Mr Jackson, so do not commit any other crimes again, certainly not through the next, the three years after you finish your 12 months.  You have got to comply with any obligation or requirement under the sentencing regulations that means they will take your photograph so that they know who you are when you come into the Office of Corrections you have got to comply with that.

23You have got to report to and receive visits from the Office of Corrections.  You must report to the community corrections centre within two clear working days of the order starting, so two clear working days after you are released from prison you must get to the Shepparton community correctional services in Wyndham Street and report.  You must let them, the community corrections officer know within two clear working days the change of your address or job.  So if you are going to move with your partner somewhere else well then you have got to tell them that and if you get a job, where that is.

24You cannot leave Victoria without getting permission from the Office of Corrections and you must obey their lawful directions.  That applies to everybody, and it applies to you.

25In addition to that you must do the following, 250 hours of unpaid work over the three years as directed by the regional manager.  You must be under their supervision, that might require you to come in and see them under supervision, you have got to do what they say.  You have to be assessed and treated for drug abuse and dependency.  You must undergo any mental health assessments and treatment which may include psychological and psychiatric treatment.  You must participate in programs and courses that address factors that relate to your offending.  There was, in addition on the document indication that you have to undergo medical assessment and treatment, that is not required. 

26I might get that document reprinted so it says accurately what it is.  The sentence order then, sign it, if you would not mind approaching your client with that - thank you.  Just above where you have signed it says that you understand the effects and conditions of the order and consent to it being made so if you do not do it you will just be reminded of all of that Mr Jackson as I say, it will just mean almost inevitably that you will serve a significant period of time in prison.

27And importantly, as you probably appreciate Mr Jackson you will be under effectively my supervision until you are nearly 30.  That is, you will turn 26 approaching 27 when you commence the community corrections order and it is for three years.  So if you get through it, you will be right, if you do not, you will just keep wasting your life and going back to prison.  There is nothing further on this matter?

28MR GRIMSHAW:  No, Your Honour.

29HIS HONOUR:  Thank you very much Mr Grimshaw for your efforts in bringing this matter on at haste, we will adjourn until there is another matter, a plea, on tomorrow is there ‑ ‑ ‑

30MR GRIMSHAW: There is Your Honour, yes.

31HIS HONOUR:  We will deal with that tomorrow.  One final thing,  Mr Jackson, because of the set up in the court, and the fact there is a police officer here and that is it, you cannot spend time with your partner, you will just have to go with the police officer now while I sit on the Bench.  Do you understand?

32OFFENDER:  Yep.

33HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Thank, you. I will close this court.  Thank you.

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