Director of Public Prosecutions v Large
[2025] VCC 91
•10 February 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION
CR-23-01538
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JAKE LARGE |
---
JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA |
WHERE HELD: | Ballarat |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 10 February 2025 |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Large |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 91 |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---
Subject: Sentence – Guilty Plea – Theft and Burglary – Possession - Combination Sentence
Catchwords: Delayed Plea - Minor Possession – Multiple Charges of Theft and Burglary – Drug-affected Conduct - Rehabilitation Community Corrections Order – Imprisonment
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (vic)
Cases Cited: Burke v The Crown [2023] VSCA 233
Sentence: 8-month Imprisonment and 12-month Community Corrections Order.
---
APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | F. Cameron | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For the Accused | C. Nikakis | Haines & Polites |
HIS HONOUR:
1Jake Large, you have pleaded guilty to burglary, theft and theft of a firearm occurring on 27 March 2020, and possessing cannabis on 9 June 2020.
2The agreed basis for your guilty plea is set out in the prosecution opening dated 14 January 2025.
3In summary, on 27 March 2020, in company with somebody else, you drove a Ford Territory with no registration plates onto a rural property on Camerons Lane in Beremboke. You jemmied the front door and you entered the house there to steal. (Charge 1).
4You ransacked the home, cupboards, drawers, forced open the tool shed and jemmied open the gun safe. You and the other person stole, between you, a laptop, service medals and badges, valuables including watches and jewellery, (Charge 2), and from the gun safe in the shed a Winchester Long Arm - (Charge 3).
5A neighbour noticed something was wrong, parked her vehicle across the entrance gate. So, you or the co-offender drove your car across country to another gate. The neighbour tried to block that too, but you drove through it, causing some damage to your vehicle, and then drove off. The neighbour called Triple 0.
6You were arrested a couple of months later on 9 June 2020 and when you were arrested they found you were in possession of a small quantity of cannabis (charge 4).
7The victims of the theft and the burglary have not made a statement about how that has affected them, but I take notice of the fact that breaking into a stranger's home is going to affect them. You stole deeply private belongings, valuable medals and jewellery, not all of it was recovered, as I understand. A home is where somebody should feel secure, including the security of their belongings.
8As you rebuild a sense of family and home, I trust you will reflect on that experience if it happened to you, and that your shame, which you should feel, is a motivator for you as you put yourself together and make for a better life.
9At the property police found DNA on damaged parts of the vehicle you were in and they executed a search warrant on 9 June 2020 at your home, or at least where you were visiting. They found some of the items stolen there and the vehicle that was damaged.
10You were arrested and interviewed. You denied ever being at the property and you informed on your now ex-partner saying that the Ford Territory, was hers. You were charged and given bail that day, and later that month, on a phone call from somebody in custody, you effectively made admissions about being involved in what happened.
11There were delays in listing your case due to the theft of the firearm charge being inaccurately listed in the summary stream in the Magistrates Court, and then multiple adjournments while your lawyers on your behalf required evidence to be produced.
12You conducted a contested committal on 4 October 2023 and indicated a not guilty plea at the end of that.
13In May 2024 the matter resolved and you pleaded guilty formally on 15 May 2024.
14It was then adjourned to allow your lawyers to be put in funds, and so, as of today I find that your guilty plea is not early in the proceedings but rather it was late. Not only after effectively lying to police in the interview and conducting a contested committal and entering a not guilty plea at the Magistrates' level, there have been a number of procedural hearings since then.
15Notwithstanding the timing of the plea, the usefulness of your guilty plea is not lost on me, it saves the community the cost and inconvenience of a trial, and whilst it is belated, I accept that it shows that you are taking responsibility for what you did and in-part facilitating the course of justice.
16You are 33 now and you were 29 at the time. Your parents and brother are in court. Your father gave evidence. He was candid about your problem with methamphetamine, which I note is pretty much a matter of record given your criminal history. Your co-operation in letting your father give that evidence is noted. In my view it indicates some maturity on your part notwithstanding what you have been doing for a few years now.
17You have a one-year-old son with your ex-partner and she has her own problems, including with drugs and is seeking rehab. Your family, particularly your parents here in court, are supporting you to care for that son and that is important. Participating in family and home life I expect is a big change from where you have been over the years, and I accept that that is going to be demanding.
18Since leaving school in Year 10 you have been working in construction and labouring on and off, but your drug addiction since about 18 or 20 has interfered and things have become too much for you regularly. You have had a short-term ability to engage in work but your drug use has really fractured your relationships and your home life,and your criminal history reflects that. It relates to drug use and all that goes with it. There are some property offences, deceptions, and handling stolen goods during that time, but I accept it is all drug related.
19A CCO assessment (Exhibit A) has assessed you about that and you expressed positive attitudes towards it. They found you to be a moderate risk of relapse, which, in my view, represents the progress you have made over the past eight months. I think if I had had you assessed this time last year you would have been a high risk.
20The order that I make will ultimately require you to engage in testing, which is going to be the ‘acid test’, so to speak, of whether or not you are staying on top of things. And hopefully, as is clear from the way I asked questions of your father, being involved in the CCO will involve your family learning and developing a relapse prevention plan with you based on the learnings of those who have treated others.
21As to sentencing, the maximum penalty for burglary and theft is ten years on each charge. For theft of a firearm, it is 15 years. For possession of a small amount of cannabis, I am going to convict and discharge you, the maximum penalty is five penalty units.
22The burglary and thefts in this case were planned and engaged-in with determination; the car registration was removed, you jemmied open or opened locked gates, the front door, the shed, the gun locker, you avoided the neighbour, what sounds like ramming your way out through a gate.
23Your role in all of that was that you were present and an active participant - you could not have been a part of what was going on without being so. Whether you personally took each item is not really to point, you acted together, to break in and steal.
24The added significance in Charge 3 is that it involved breaking open a safe and taking firearms. The community is justifiably worried about such weapons getting into the hands of the wrong people and the risk that that entails.
25One of the only ways the law can meet that kind of offending is to make sure that the consequences of letting your addiction get out of control to that extent is to make the result tough and a real motivator to avoid doing things like this. As a consequence I must deter both you and others who are tempted to do so.
26You have a significant history, not for burglaries but possessing proceeds of crime and the like and being seriously involved with drugs. So when calculating how much time you have to do, I have given weight to that.
27The time that has passed since this offence , since March 2020, to date has been lengthy, which means you have lived with it hanging over your head, I do not expect that has been free of stress. There has been a little bit of further offending dealt with since but recently you have showed a promising start, and I have had regard to both, in relation to the type and the length of sentence.
28I regard charges 1-3, that is the burglary and the two thefts, to arise from the same incident, and so I am going to sentence you on all of those concurrently.
29On the word of your father, which I have indicated I accept, you have commenced, in my view, real rehabilitation at home over the last months. While you are doing well, I am concerned that you have the support from experienced drug counsellors when you are released. This will help you build on your good start but also to develop a plan with others for what you do when things get difficult.
30I accept that due to your long history with drugs, your habits are no doubt somewhat entrenched and so things will get difficult at some stage or other and you will need supervision and help if you are to succeed.
31The prosecution started the morning saying that you had to get a head sentence and a non-parole type sentence, but at that point had not heard the important evidence about your recent progress.
32Your counsel, Mr Nikakis, quite rightly, submitted that that gets you into the territory of a combination sentence, because it better reflects your progress and the hopes you have for the future, and I agree.
33I have taken into account cases including Burke v The Crown [2023] VSCA 233, indicating something of the current sentence practice of courts on charges of theft of firearm and the relevant sentencing statistics.
34In my view, I can construct a sentence that requires a period of time in custody of a length that justice really requires in this case, followed by a supervised release back at home with the support of your family in order to capitalise on the gains you have made to date. I expect if you choose to, keeping future goals in mind, particularly with the motivations about your son, that you will be able to make gains both from what you have achieved to date but also from what you will learn in custody when you do programs there.
35I sentence you as follows: on Charge 1, burglary, 6 months' imprisonment plus a CCO; on Charge 2, theft, 6 months' imprisonment plus a CCO; on Charge 3, theft of the firearm, 8 months' imprisonment plus a CCO.
36All of those sentences are to be served concurrently.
37Your total effective sentence is 8 months, commencing today, and when you are released you will be on a CCO. You will not be applying for parole or waiting for the Parole Board to decide whether to give it to you.
38Your CCO is with conviction, and it goes for 12 months. The conditions include the mandatory conditions but also supervision, assessment and treatment for drug use, assessment and treatment to help you with mental health, and also to engage in programs.
39As I indicated, I am not making you come back to court for judicial monitoring, but if you do not go well in the first period of your CCO then I can expect Corrections will bring you back.
40You have served no days pre-sentence detention, so your 8 months starts today and you will be released on eight months to the day.
41In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, if you had not pleaded guilty but were found guilty after trial, I would have imposed 2 years 4 months with a non-parole period of 16 months.
‑ ‑ ‑
0