Director of Public Prosecutions v Logan

[2018] VCC 1858

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

AT WARRNAMBOOL
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

STEVEN LOGAN

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULALLY
WHERE HELD:	Warrnambool
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	13 November 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Logan
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 1858

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr G. Hevey	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr J. Hannebery

HIS HONOUR: 

1Steven Logan, on 16 and 17 February police executed a total of three search warrants at your premises.  They found 333 grams of methylamphetamine, which when tested was between 70 to 90 per cent purity.  Also found were the instruments and accoutrements of drug trafficking.

2Of concern was the police also found a revolver hidden in a cavity built into a cupboard.  Other firearms were found; they were imitation weapons or a barrel of another gun.  The imitation weapon could fire pellets.  Police also found a substantial amount of cash, being $14,800.

3You pleaded guilty to two charges that were on an indictment, being trafficking in a drug of dependence and possession of the unregistered general category handgun.  There were also a number of related summary offences arising out of the possession of the imitation firearm, possession of prohibited weapons, failure to store cartridge ammunition and a longarm firearm.  You also were on bail and thus committed an indictable offence whilst on bail, and importantly in that array of offending you have pleaded guilty to dealing with property suspected to be the proceeds of crime being the $14,800.

4The most serious charge is the trafficking in no less than a commercial quantity of methylamphetamines.  The basis for the trafficking was the possession by you of the 333 grams of methylamphetamines for the purposes of sale.  In terms of the weight and purity of the drug, it is over approximately 1.3 times the qualifying amount for commercial quantity.

5As the Court of Appeal has made clear, the central factor in assessing the gravity of drug offences is the weight of the drugs involved.  However, beyond the objective fact of the weight of the drugs found there was, as your counsel pointed out in his written submissions, no solid evidence of the breadth or scale or plans for sales in your trafficking operation.

6That said, drug offences of this kind must be condemned.  Ice wreaks havoc.  Your own experience is a sad testimony of that fact.  Our community pays a great cost as ice entrepreneurs profit.  The effect on regional towns is substantial and well know.  Those who use this drug and then take up possessing it for sale must understand that despite their own personal tragedy there must be stern punishment.  That point also applies with respect to the firearm offence on indictment.

7What must be made clear is that denunciation and deterrence are the principal sentencing purposes.  Your own rehabilitation is not overlooked and there is a good deal to be said that establishes your prospects for rehabilitation.  Those prospects are positive.

8Turning to your personal circumstances, you are now 31 years old.  You were raised in Portland. Your parents separated when you were 17.  You have a close relationship in particular with your father.  Both your parents continue to support you.  The letters they wrote insightfully outline your deterioration from a young man with great potential and moving on to a hardworking business owner and then a drug-addicted man who lost everything.

9What is clear is that from school you obtained solid qualifications as a diesel mechanic.  You have a strong work history leading as mentioned to the establishment at a young age of a successful business.  You excelled as a driver in speedway events.  Many of those who came across you in that sport wrote testimonials outlining your many good qualities.  Your good friends have written in similar terms.

10What those that know you best, that is your  family and friends, refer to is the decline in your behaviour as a consequence of the deterioration and end of a long term relationship.  You used ice, and that took a hold of you.  Your relationship ended, you lost your previous strong capacity to work and your business failed.

11You have taken up with another woman who, unfortunately, was also an ice user.  You continue attachment to her and this is the only remaining concern I have as to your prospects to end drug use.  She is currently on remand in South Australia.  You yourself have been in custody on remand since your arrest.  You have done all you can in terms of courses, drug screens, and working whilst in prison, which is very much to your credit.

12It seems that the experience of prison has woken up you up to the fact that you have wasted an important part of your life and that you must turn things around upon your release.  This change has been seen by your family and your friends.  They wrote about this in many of the testimonials that I read.  I will refer to just one, but it is an example that is repeated in all of them.  It is from Mr Graeme Tonkin.  He has been a supervisor at a large transport company for a number of decades.  He has known you and your family for 60 years or he has known you since you were born and as a young man.

13He says prior to the very unfortunate circumstances that led you to become addicted to drugs and to now be in gaol, you were a very hardworking young man, honest, reliable, trustworthy, with a very happy, easygoing personality.  He says that you are a qualified diesel mechanic and working on trucks and cars was your passion and a favourite pastime.  He goes on that you were solely responsible for setting up a new workshop for a transport company in Portland before going into business yourself.

14During the time that you were setting up your business you also worked on the docks or as a casual stevedore in the Port of Portland.  He says that you became engaged to be married to a Melbourne girl at the same time that you started your own business and bought your home in Richardson Street. You were very happy and excited about your future at this time.  You loved working for yourself despite the fact that maintaining and repairing trucks and operating 24 hours, seven hours a week, requiring lots of night calls and weekend work.  This had, to summarise what he said, an effect upon your relationship and it ended.

15He writes that you were totally devastated by this.  Your life was shattered, you lost the will to live and your world spiraled down into a drug-induced haze.

16The charges that have ensured that you are in gaol, Mr Tonkin writes, "have actually saved his life.  On my recent visit to see him, he had returned to his old
pre-drug self.  He was remorseful and sad about what he had done but he was able to find pride and pleasure again through his work building the farm cattle crush gates.  He looks fit and healthy again, in both body and mind, with counselling he has received and with the knowledge that he is still very much loved.  I firmly believe that Steven Logan can again be the incredible young man he was before".  He says, "He'll certainly have my trust and I have no hesitation appearing before a court of law to support him".  Those sentiments, as I said, including some from an experienced mental health practitioner, are repeated.

17The opinion of the psychologist, Mr Barth, that you saw confirms that you have insight into your problems.  Mr Barth is also of the view that your determination to put drugs behind you and to seek out professional help is likely to see you permanently reformed.  It seems that there are or will likely be good employment prospects on your release.

18Another important element that provides a strong foundation for your rehabilitation is your remorse.  Many have seen your remorse.  In my view it is genuine remorse and rightly mitigatory.  Your plea of guilty is of real value and further evidence of your remorse.  The sentence I will impose is less than it otherwise would have been had you pleaded not guilty and been found guilty of the offence.

19The crimes, in particular drug trafficking of not less than a commercial quantity and the possession of the handgun, lead inevitably to a sentence of imprisonment.  That said, the strong mitigatory matters have been factored into the equation.  The maximum term for trafficking in not less than a commercial quantity is 25 years' imprisonment and it shows just how seriously our Parliament takes the offence of trafficking in not less than a commercial quantity.

20Your counsel submitted that there ought to be no cumulation for the possession of a handgun, he did so in writing.  That was dealt with in his oral submissions indicating that some small level of cumulation should occur, but I have revisited the sentences to ensure that the overall sentence meets the totality of your offending.

21The possession of the handgun is a separate and serious piece of offending.  As to the other weapons, the controlled weapons and the bail offences, I agree with your counsel that a fine is the appropriate penalty.  In respect of the cash, and that is the charge of dealing in the proceeds of crime, it is more serious and the amount involved warrant, in my view, a term of imprisonment.  As the money is said to be tied up in the drug offending, a concurrent sentencing is appropriate in all the circumstances.

22This, Mr Logan, is a sentence that is, when assessed against other sentences and against all the circumstances, as lenient as I can be.  It will not seem that to you but these are very serious crimes. 

23For committing the offence of trafficking in a drug of dependence in not less than a commercial quantity you are sentenced to be imprisoned for four years.  For the crime of possession of the unregistered general category handgun you are sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment.  I order that six months of Charge 2 be cumulative upon Charge 1.  That gives a total sentence on the indictment of four years and six months and I order that you serve two years and six months before being eligible for parole.

24In respect of all the summary offences save for the dealing in the proceeds of crime, I intend to impose an aggregate fine so you are convicted and fined an aggregate sum of $1500.

25In respect of the charge of dealing in the proceeds of crime you are sentenced to three months' imprisonment to be wholly concurrent with the sentence that I imposed upon the matters on indictment.  Had you pleaded not guilty to these offences and been found guilty of them I would have imposed a sentence of six years and six months, with a minimum terms of four years and nine months.

26There are a number of orders that have to be made to forfeit things that were found and dispose of them and so on and so forth.  Those applications having been made by the prosecution, I intend to grant those orders.  That means there will be documents signed and then that brings the matter to an end. 

27MR HEVEY:  There is pre-sentence detention.

28HIS HONOUR:  I am so sorry, I have just been reminded, which is here but I forgot.  270 days?

29MR HEVEY:  That's right, Your Honour. 

30HIS HONOUR:  You have been in custody for 270 days.  That amount of time having been reckoned or calculated, I declare that that 270 days is part of the sentence I have just imposed.  I will ensure that that declaration is entered into the records of the court so the prison authorities are left in no doubt that you have already served 270 days of the term of imprisonment that I have just imposed.

31Those disposal and forfeiture orders have been signed and copies will be provided to the parties.  Is there anything else required?

32MR HANNEBERY:  No, Your Honour.

33MR HEVEY:  Thank you, Your Honour.

34HIS HONOUR:  I thank counsel for their considerable assistance and
Mr Hannebery for waiting around patiently and to all those that are here for
Mr Logan for doing likewise.  Mr Logan, again the court is not set up so that you can spend any time here with those that have come to support you, so you just have to head away with the police officers and we will continue on with other matters.  Thank you.

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