Director of Public Prosecutions v Latu

[2015] VCC 918

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 14-00269

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

SOANE LATU

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE RYAN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	1 July 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v LATU
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 918

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Office of Public Prosecutions	Ms K. Hamill	Solicitor for Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms Z. Broughton	Victoria Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR:

1On 13 June of last year, in respect to a charge of armed robbery committed on 11 September 2013, I sentenced you to three months imprisonment and in addition, to a community corrections order for a period of four years with conditions that you perform 300 hours unpaid community work, you undergo treatment and rehabilitation including assessment and treatment, including testing in respect of drugs and alcohol, that you be supervised, monitored and managed as directed by the Secretary and that you be monitored by this court.  I directed that you appear before me for a review every 12 months during the currency of the order and that the Secretary report to me on your progress every six months, during the currency of the order.

2You have admitted breaching my order by failing to perform unpaid community work on the dates as set out in the schedule to the charge in summons.  Likewise, you failed to undergo treatment and rehabilitation and to be supervised on the dates as set out in the schedule to the charge and summons.

3Ms Broughton on your behalf, put a powerful plea. She properly and accurately drew a distinction between the initial report provided to the court as part of my order, and the breach report that supports the charge and summons.

4Your parents, who are strong, honest and hardworking people, came to give evidence on your behalf.  But for their evidence, you would be sentenced to a term of imprisonment in respect to your original offending.  You owe them a great debt, a debt in addition to the gift of life that they gave to you. 

5I regard your breach of the community corrections order as a serious breach.  You failed to meet your obligations for reasons that I am yet to fully understand and I do not know that I ever will.  I accept that in part, indeed perhaps the predominant part of your motivation for failing to meet your obligation, was your sense of responsibility for your grandparents, which responsibility you have admirably met.

6At no stage, save for 17 January of 2015 did you ever mention to those persons, who had the role of supervising you of your responsibility for your grandparents as being a motivating factor for your failure to comply with the order.  On 5 January however, you communicated to your supervisor that you did not attend a particular day of unpaid community work because you were in holiday mode and you expressed a sense of indifference to the consequences of breaching the community corrections order.

7In respect of the contravention of the community corrections order offence, I sentence you to seven days imprisonment.  In respect to the community corrections order itself, I confirm the order as originally made.  What that means Mr Latu is this, that the community corrections order stays on foot and the obligations that you have in respect of it, stay on foot.

8Your function now is to comply with my orders so that you can continue to support your parents and in particular your mother, in respect of your grandmother and so that you can remain at liberty, to support your children as best as you can.

9Do not come back to me again, except in compliance of this order.  I indicated to you last time that if you committed an offence, you would be going to gaol.  What I meant by that was another criminal offence of a kind like burglary or theft or an act of violence.  You have not done that.  In that respect, you have remained crime free and that is one of the motivating reasons why I have not varied or cancelled your order.

10But you need to be reminded, that your obligation is to comply with the order that I have made.  That order was directed towards you not offending again.  It continues to be directed at you not re-offending.  It is directed towards you becoming a law abiding and hardworking member of our community like your parents.  Now do you understand what has happened here today?

11OFFENDER:  Yes.

12HIS HONOUR:  You have lost your liberty for seven days and seven days only by your breach of this community corrections order.  You will be back in your parents' home in seven days.  Do not breach this community corrections order again.  Do not commit a criminal offence during the course of this community corrections order.  If you are having trouble complying with the order, talk to the people who are supervising you.  Their function is to get you through the order.  Do you understand?

13OFFENDER:  Yes.

14HIS HONOUR:  If you are not straight with them, you will end up back in there and the real likelihood is that you will have tied my hands and it will be you who have tied them.  Do you understand that?

15OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

16HIS HONOUR:  All right, now it is very easy to say yes, particularly in the position in which you stand.  My position in respect to you is one of power and what I mean by that is, that you are hardly in a position to be saying no to me.  That motivates you to say yes to me, because you know that is what I want to hear and you know, that is what is expected of you.  Understand please, if you come back to me, you will have tied my hands.  You will be the person in the position of power.  Your conduct will limit what I am able to do.  You will exercise power over me and you will narrow down the options that are available to me, in respect of you and it will be at your hands.  Do you understand?

17OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

18HIS HONOUR:  I am putting you in the driver's seat.  Anytime there is a problem, you talk to your supervisor.  They will work with you and if there is a problem, ask the supervisor to bring this matter back to court.  The reason why I want you back to see me every 12 months is I want you to live a hardworking, law abiding life to support your parents and support your children.  That is what I want, because that is what the community wants.  Remove the prisoner.

19Mr and Mrs Latu, I want to thank you very much for coming to court.  You have assisted your son.  It gives me no joy sending your son to gaol for a week, taking him from your home, but it is only a week and it will pass.  I sincerely hope the only time I see your son again is once every year, when he comes back and tells me how well he is going.  I want to thank you very much for coming to court.

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