Director of Public Prosecutions v Lynch

[2017] VCC 1210

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

AT BALLARAT
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-00752

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

CHYNADE LYNCH

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MONTGOMERY
WHERE HELD:	Ballarat
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	28 August 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Lynch
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1210

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. Bourke
For the Accused	Ms Hartnett

HIS HONOUR:

1Chynade Alice Lynch, you have pleaded guilty to six charges of theft, two charges of burglary, one charge of criminal damage, one charge of theft of a firearm and three charges of obtaining property by deception.

2The facts of the matter are set out in the prosecution opening, Exhibit 1.  They are not disputed by your counsel.  I will not refer to them.  Any reader of these reasons can refer to that exhibit to place the sentence in its factual context.

3My summary of it is that this was a mindless, senseless mini crime spree by you and your co-offender, Mr Inkster Delaney.  It had no real purpose and should never have occurred.  You interfered with the property of others.

4Your co-accused was dealt with in the Children's Court and received a ten month Youth Justice Centre.  He had an extensive criminal record, which runs not including these matters for some 16 pages.  He was aged 18 at the time.  You were aged 19 and you are now aged 20.  You were under the influence of alcohol and Xanax at the time.

5Your counsel in mitigation relied on your plea of guilty, which is an admission by you of responsibility for your behaviour and has saved the community the cost of a jury trial and has been given the appropriate discount.  Unlike your co-accused, you have no prior criminal history and I am told you have no subsequent criminal history after the plea hearing.

6You have the support of your parents and a number of references were tenders to the court.  One from Reconnect dated 6 June 2017 in which it is set out that you are engaging well with your Reconnect worker.  It is a program designed to assist young people between the ages of 15 to 24 to cope with life experiences and education and similar matters.

7You are engaged with Headspace.  You have stopped using substances, it is said, and you are also engaged with the Salvation Army.  There is a reference from Wimmera Uniting Care, which details your involvement with the Youth Outreach Support Services Program with that organisation and one from Headspace, which says that you have engaged well with the service and you keep regular appointments with them and sets out the programs that you are involved with.

8After the plea I asked for a community corrections extended report and I have received one from Glen Dowling.  I am not sure I have given that a number yet, but we will make that Exhibit L4. In that you were assessed as being at a moderate risk of reoffending.  It sets out that you have the support of your family in Horsham.

9In your account of the actions that you have pleaded guilty to, you said you did not plan on doing it and really had no reason for doing it.  You just did it.  You had outlined your alcohol and drug use at the time.  You were daily using methamphetamine in the vicinity of a gram a day and cannabis.  You are a sporadic consumer of alcohol.  At the time of being assessed, you were on Valium and set out the services that you were engaged with.

10A number of conditions were set out if I were to grant a community corrections order. I take into account all of those matters and in particular, your age, the fact that you have no other criminal history and the issue of what occurred with your co-offender who had a very extensive criminal history, the other sentencing matters that I have to take into account are these.

11What is called punishment.  You will understand that concept.  What is called general deterrence.  That is, I have to impose a sentence that tries to stop other people doing a similar thing.  Specific deterrence.  That is, I have to get into your mind not to do this again.  Rehabilitation, denunciation.  You would understand, this is appalling behaviour, and protection of the community.

12In sentencing you, I must have regard to a range of matters such as the seriousness of the offending, and this is serious, your culpability for it, your personal circumstances and what happened to the victims.  I am required to balance the interests of the community in denouncing criminal conduct with the interests of the community to seek to ensure as far as possible, offenders are rehabilitated into society.  I express my denunciation of your behaviour.

13Weighing up all those matters and doing the best I can, I say to you, if you were a lot older and had had a criminal history, you would be receiving an extensive gaol sentence for this type of behaviour.  It is very hard to come back from gaol once you go there.  It is all downhill.

14Taking into account all the factors, I have decided to put you on a community corrections order for a period of two years, with conditions that you do 150 hours community work.  But any treatment that you undergo will be credited towards the Community Workhouse, with other conditions for treatment and rehabilitation for drug, alcohol and mental health, with a supervision program and also judicial monitoring.  That is, you must come back and see me at a date I will now find.

15We will make it at 10.30 on 17 November at the County Court in Melbourne, not here.

16OFFENDER:  All right.

17HIS HONOUR:  So, you will have to come up to Melbourne.  Be there at 10 o'clock and I will see how you are going and hopefully all goes well.  Everything is going well, it should take a couple of seconds.  If not, I better think of something else to do with you.  All right?

18I declare that if you had gone to trial and you were convicted by a jury after pleas of not guilty, you would have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment of the order of five years with a non-parole period of three.

19Are there any other orders I need to look at?

20MR BOURKE:  There are, Your Honour.  I know my learned friend wants to raise something with you and I will allow her to do that.  But there are two compensation orders sought.  One in favour of a Gary Howden, $2,000 and the other, second in relation to a Frank Lawson of $575.

21HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  What is your attitude to those, Ms Hartnett?  Sit down, thank you, Ms Lynch.

22MR HARTNETT:  They are not opposed.

23HIS HONOUR:  All right.  I will sign those.  You want to raise something with me?

24MR HARTNETT:  It is really just a ‑ ‑ ‑

25HIS HONOUR:  I have got to do a license cancellation, don't I?  For the theft of the car.

26MR BOURKE:  Yes, Your Honour.

27HIS HONOUR:  She got a license?

28MR HARTNETT:  No, she does not.  She is disqualified until January of 2018.  So, she is ‑ ‑ ‑

29HIS HONOUR:  I disqualify her from obtaining a license for a period of six months.

30MR HARTNETT:  As Your Honour pleases.  Your Honour, there is just one matter and I just wanted to clarify.  Your Honour has mentioned of a lack of subsequent matters and there certainly, there have been no matters since she was here last before Your Honour on 7 June.  It certainly was put on the plea then.  I just did not want to mislead Your Honour that she appeared at the Horsham Magistrates' Court in December.

31HIS HONOUR:  I mean subsequent to the plea.

32MR HARTNETT:  Yes, of course.  I just wanted to clarify that.

33HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  All right.  If you give me those orders, I will sign them.  Thank you.  You have to sign the CCO, so that will be prepared.

34I make an order for compensation pursuant to s.86 of the Sentencing Act in the term of the order that I sign.  One in relation to Frank Lawson and one in relation to Gary Howden. 

35If you would like to take it up to your client.  See if she wants to sign it.  Thank you.

36You have signed this saying you understand the effects and conditions of the order and consent to it being made?  Thank you.  Ms Lynch, you can come out of there and it is very easy to avoid the courts.  Just do not do anything wrong.  Thank you, Ms Hartnett.  You are excused.

37MR HARTNETT:  Thank you.

38(At this stage the court proceeded with another matter.)

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