Director of Public Prosecutions v Mansour

[2019] VCC 365

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-02136

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

SAVIO MANSOUR

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	25 March 2019
DATE OF SENTENCE:	25 March 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Mansour
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 365

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms A. Upton	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr R. Melasecca	Melasecca Kelly & Zayler

HIS HONOUR:

1Savio Mansour, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of prohibited person possess a firearm, one charge of traffic in a drug of dependence, that being amphetamine, and two charges of possession of a drug of dependence. 

2There are also summary matters to which you have pleaded guilty, of possess cartridge ammunition, deal with property suspected proceeds of crime, commit indictable offence whilst on bail and contravene certain condition of bail. 

3As far as those matters are concerned, on the possess cartridge ammunition, you are convicted and discharged.  On the charges of commit indictable offence whilst on bail - sorry, on the other three charges, seven days concurrent on each.  All right, that settles those matters. 

4For these particular matters that I am now to deal with off the indictment, the penalties for prohibited person are ten years, trafficking, 15 years, and the possess drugs also carry imprisonment.  In this situation, I am able to give an aggregate sentence and because of what arises from one situation, that is what I propose to do.

5You pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity and endeavoured to have the matters heard in the Magistrates' Court.  I accept that your plea of guilty is accompanied by a degree of remorse and you must obviously get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty. 

6You are now 20 years of age and were 19 years of age at the time of the offending.  You are a person of limited intelligence and I regard your youth as being of real importance in this sentencing process.  You do have a significant criminal history and, indeed, this offending occurred within a couple of months of being released from a previous adult sentence and whilst you were on a community corrections order. 

7Your criminal history is not one to be laughed at but it is certainly not one which extinguishes hope of rehabilitation.  At your age and in your circumstances, with the strong family support that you obviously have, as indicated by their presence in court today, I do have hope that you will be able to turn your life around. 

8The circumstances of the offending were that on 13 July 2018, police attended at your family home, as I understand it, with a prohibition order to serve on you, as far as firearms are concerned.  You were found sleeping in a car nearby and when you opened the doors, police detected a strong smell of cannabis coming from inside the car.  I am assuming they did not have a warrant at that stage but in any event.

9You got out of the car and the car was searched.  You were found to have 23 grams of methylamphetamine, a black sock containing a Webley & Scott five shot double-action revolver, loaded with five rounds of ammunition, $7760 in Australian currency, two smaller quantities of other drugs and a box containing rounds of ammunition which would fit the firearm you were found with.  You were arrested by police and exercised your right to remain silent. 

10In these circumstances, it is clear to me that, bearing in mind your prior conviction for possession of a firearm and the nature of your criminal history, that the firearm is involved for the purposes of the trafficking and I sentence on that basis.  Your counsel has given me a number of other cases on prohibited person in possession; I can simply say that they are not in line with the sentences I have been imposing over the last ten years for this sort of crime.

11In any event, be that all as it may, it is serious offending and you have done it before, certainly so far as the gun is concerned.  I think a gaol sentence for this is inevitable.  Youth Justice is out of the equation because of the experiences you have had since your arrest.  When you were previously sentenced, you were again - it was an adult situation of adult custody and I have got no doubt, as your counsel quite properly puts, Youth Justice would not accept you for such a sentence.

12Submissions have been made about whether there should be a corrections order or whatever should follow, and for the reasons I have outlined, I think the true situation here is that I should simply give you a straight sentence with not that long to go. 

13On 8 April, you are back before the Magistrates' Court to be dealt with other matters, and on 16 April, you are back to be dealt with for the CCO which you were originally given back in last year.  The magistrate, at that point in time, with a CCO as well as with the other offending, will be able to extend that CCO if they think that is in order. They will be able to see what your circumstances are at that time and you will be eligible, on my sentence, for a release being quite imminent. 

14I think in this circumstance, a magistrate has far better capacity to judicially monitor, as has been suggested for you, and these sentencing remarks will clearly be available for that sentencing magistrate, whoever that may ultimately turn out to be. 

15As I think I have just indicated, the situation is serious, it calls for the application of general and specific deterrence.  Obviously, there has to be denunciation and, in your situation, an appropriate punishment. 

16Tendered on your behalf was a reference from your sister, which I have clearly read, and also reports from a consultant psychologist, Mr Luke Armstrong, who has now seen you for an extended period over of a couple of occasions. 

17You were born in Baghdad and, as a young person, were subjected to extraordinary circumstances where you were kidnapped.  Your family ultimately came to Australia.  It would appear, and I accept this, that you certainly have a childhood PTSD condition, though perhaps not an adult one. 

18Your circumstances are that your family's hardworking, indeed your sister's studying to be a lawyer.  You have that family support.  You, for a number of reasons, I think probably including that post-traumatic stress disorder, are in a situation of you feeling inferior because of your height, which I am told is four foot eight or something along those lines.

19You fell, at a very early age, into the use of cannabis.  Ice seems to have come much later and basically you have fallen in with a crowd where even at your young age, if you are running around with stolen goods, guns, and trafficking drugs. You have started to see yourself as a bit of a gangster; that is not a good look, Mr Mansour.  Gangsters usually end up either being shot themselves or doing very, very significant sentences. 

20I have taken into account all those matters contained in the report and in the references and in the very helpful chronology and submissions that were put on your behalf by your counsel.  In all those circumstances, I think that the pragmatic and sensible way of dealing with this is for me to simply sentence you to be imprisoned, with a magistrate to deal with what occurs from there on. 

21It is clear that you, if you are going to come good, do require intensive assistance and how that is going to be provided without family assistance, I must admit I have really got no idea.  But in any event, you family are all here, they have heard what your counsel has had to say and they have heard what the psychologist has had to say on your behalf. 

22I am just hoping that now that you have - it would appear to be assimilated again with your father, that may occur as well.  The time you have done in gaol has been hard, you have been banned from your mother and sister visiting you for reasons which I can guess at.  In any event, you have done it hard and it is your chance now, despite anything happening before to try and turn your life around.

23The prospects of you rehabilitation are really up to you.  The risk of you reoffending if you continue to use drugs has got to be regarded as very high.  At your age, despite my teasing of your counsel, I am prepared to take a chance of your rehabilitation. 

24Accordingly, on those charges that remain on the indictment, you are sentenced for an aggregate period of 285 days, and I direct that 255 days be reckoned as having been served under that sentence. 

25MS UPTON:  Just one issue.

26HIS HONOUR:  Yes?

27MS UPTON:  The Charge 4 on the indictment of possess cannabis is only a fine.

28HIS HONOUR:  I thought I dealt with that.  Is that - convict and discharged.

29MS UPTON:  No, it is on the ‑ ‑ ‑

30HIS HONOUR:  No, all right, convict and discharge. 

31MS UPTON:  As Your Honour pleases.