Director of Public Prosecutions v Maroky
[2021] VCC 1552
•12 October 2021
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-20-00770
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| MARIO MAROKY |
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JUDGE: | Judge Bayles | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 28 September 2021 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 12 October 2021 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Maroky | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2021] VCC 1552 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW – Sentencing.
Catchwords: Plea of guilty; Trafficking in a drug of dependence; Methylamphetamine; Use of police covert operative; Circumstances of Covid-19 taken into account; Remorse; Prospects of rehabilitation assessed as very good; Drug addiction; Participation in residential rehabilitation program; Combination sentence.
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) s 5(2)(c) and (d); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) s 16(3B); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) s 6AAA.
Cases Cited:Kada v The Queen [2017] VSCA 339; Akoka v The Queen [2017] VSCA 214; Worboyes v The Queen [2021] VSCA 169; Fariah v The Queen [2021] VSCA 213; Boulton v The Queen (2014) 46 VR 308.
Sentence: Combined sentence of four months imprisonment with a community correction order for a period of 18 months.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr P. Teo | Ms. F Skepper |
| For the Accused | Mr J. Taaffe | Mr T. Manicolo |
HIS HONOUR:
1Mario Maroky, you have pleaded guilty to three charges of trafficking in a drug of dependence namely methylamphetamine. The maximum penalty for each of these offences is 15 years’ imprisonment. You also agreed to have two related summary offences heard before this Court and pleaded guilty to those, being one charge of dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime being a sum of $1,167.55, which carries a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment, and to one charge of breaching a condition of your parole order by committing the trafficking charges the subject of the indictment before this Court, which carries a maximum penalty of three months or 30 penalty units or both. You now fall to be sentenced for each of these offences.
2The facts relating to each of these charges, including the summary offences, are set out in the summary of prosecution opening. I adopt those facts as part of these reasons for sentence. I will outline the important features here.
3By way of background, I was told that you were convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in New South Wales (‘NSW’) on 12 April 2018 for an offence of knowingly taking part in the supply of a prohibited drug in a commercial quantity namely methylamphetamine. You served your non-parole period in New South Wales and were released on parole on 25 February 2019. You were then placed on a Victoria Parole Order on 19 September 2019.
4In Melbourne, it seems that you were charged with a relatively minor offence relating to the possession of drugs. You were bailed in relation to that matter with a condition that you report to the Craigieburn Police Station. On 13 March 2020, whilst at the Craigieburn Police Station, you met a police covert operative who was referred to as CO 298. The two of you engaged in conversation. CO 298 asked if you could supply him with methylamphetamine. You declined but agreed to introduce CO298 to a friend of yours who could. It appears that this person was to be the co-accused Ross Elliott.
5In what followed, you created a Wickr chat group that included yourself, CO298 and Elliott. In short compass, a series of messages followed in that chat group that arranged for CO298 to meet with Elliott for the sale of 28 grams of methylamphetamine in exchange for $2,500. They met at about 6pm on 17 March 2020 for that transaction to occur. You did not physically participate in that transaction or attend when it occurred.
6On 23 March 2020 CO 298 messaged you and organised for the purchase of another bag of methylamphetamine. You created a group chat where CO298 and Elliott arranged to meet. They met in the car park behind Cash Converters in Glenroy where CO 298 purchased a bag of 28.2 grams of methylamphetamine for $2,500. You were not present at that meeting.
7On 2 April 2020 CO298 again messaged you seeking to purchase drugs. A similar series of events occurred except that this time CO298 met a third co-accused Callum Carson at the car park of the Meadow Heights Shopping Centre. Carson exchanged 28.1 grams of methylamphetamine in exchange for $2,700. You were not present at that meeting.
8Some aspects of the chronology of these matters assume some importance. You were initially arrested in NSW in November 2016. You were sentenced there on 12 April 2018 to a term of three years and nine months with a non-parole period of two years and three months. You were released from custody on parole on 25 February 2019, and you were placed on a Victorian Varied Parole Order on 19 September 2019.
9The trafficking offences before this Court were committed in March and April 2020. Therefore, as I see it, you had served about 13 months of what is commonly referred to as “street time” between your release on the NSW parole and the commission of these offences. Police attempted to arrest you at your home address for these offences on 24 April 2020 but were unable to do so because at that time you were in a residential rehabilitation clinic. I was told that you spent approximately three months at the Raymond Hadar Clinic, leaving that facility on 30 June 2020. The Victorian Parole Board were aware of your attendance at that clinic, and they were aware of your exiting that clinic and returning to your home address. Police then arrested you on 7 August 2020 and you were remanded into custody. Your parole was cancelled. I was told that you are to serve your entire parole period of 18 months and that the end of that sentence will be 9 January 2022. That means you will serve the whole three years and nine months of the NSW sentence, although that sentence was punctuated by approximately 18 months in the community, which includes the time spent at the Hadar Clinic. This chronology will feature in the consideration of totality, to which I will return later.
10Pursuant to section (5)(2)(c) and (d) of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) I must have regard to: the nature and gravity of the offence; and also to your culpability and degree of responsibility for the offence.
11The quantity of drugs exchanged in each of the three transactions was approximately 28 grams, or one ounce. And the amount of money exchanged was $2,500 for each of the first two transactions and $2,700 for the third. These were not small transactions. Although not commercial quantities, they involved significant quantities of the drug methylamphetamine, with significant purities, and significant sums of money.
12I turn to the question of your culpability and degree of responsibility for the commission of the offences. The use and role of the undercover operative, and the sequence of events that followed, introduces some complexity to this analysis. This matter was considered in Kada v The Queen [2017] VSCA 339, at paragraphs 57-72, in particular at paragraph 72, where the Court sets out principles relevant to the assessment of the facts of that case.
13In your case, it appears that police were engaged in an operation targeting drug trafficking in the northern suburbs. It appears that the approach to you by the undercover operative was part of an operation targeting another individual. I was not told, nor is it necessary to reveal how or why police approached you in particular, but it does seem relevant that the approach to you by the undercover operative was part of a plan to target another individual.
14You did not set out to commit these offences, in the sense that you did not initiate the contact with the undercover operative, nor did you initiate or request the transactions. You did not supply the drugs the subject of the transactions. You were not present when the transactions occurred. You did not receive any of the money that was paid in exchange for the drugs. I was told, and this was not disputed by the Crown, that you received a benefit of $300 per transaction towards the supply of cocaine to you for your own use. I was told that you participated and remained in the chat groups and the discussions for the supply of the drugs so as to retain that benefit.
15There was no evidence or suggestion that you were already engaged in the business of trafficking in drugs when you were approached by the undercover operative. This is not a case where your doors were “open for business” and the undercover operative simply came to you as a customer in the course of an already operating business. It seems to me that but for the undercover operative approaching you and asking whether you could supply him with drugs, these particular transactions would not have occurred as they did, at least not with your involvement. On the other hand, when he did ask you, you readily and willingly responded to the request for drugs, and you willingly facilitated the transactions for your own benefit. These last points are significant matters that I must take into account. You were far from an innocent or naïve participant in the commission of these offences.
16There are a number of competing factors to be considered here. However, on balance, I am prepared to take the view, in all the circumstances, that your culpability and degree of responsibility for the commission of these offences is towards the lower end of the scale.
Personal circumstances
17I turn to your personal circumstances. You are 29 years old. You were born in Turkey and have three older sisters. You came with your family to Australia when you were between three and six months old. You have a close, loving and supportive relationship with your immediate family, and I am told, your extended family as well. In particular, it is clear that your sisters have offered you an extraordinary level of support throughout your involvement with drugs and the criminal justice system, including significant interventions. From the references tendered on your behalf, you were a happy, successful and well-liked child who had a lot of potential. You completed VCE and commenced a building surveying course which you did not complete. You have since reported that you started to enjoy the partying lifestyle too much and failed to prioritise your studies. You worked part time as a teenager between the ages of 14 and 18 at Woolworths whilst at secondary school, and later you worked picker packing for 12 months but this ended as you became too involved in the lifestyle of drugs and partying.
18Your path from drug use to prison is not unique or new. It is a story familiar to those who work in the criminal justice system. You started out using drugs in what was perceived to be a recreational manner, or an adjust to a partying lifestyle, the path to addiction and criminal offending soon followed, then to serious criminal offending and, in your case, a significant period of imprisonment in NSW.
19In November 2016 you were involved in the supply of a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine in NSW. The facts of that case were provided to me by Mr Taaffe, who appeared on your behalf at the plea hearing, and I marked that document exhibit D6. I have regard to the facts of that case. A reading of that summary suggests that you were not a naïve or innocent participant in that offending either. As I have referred to above, you were sentenced to a period of three years and nine months with a non-parole period of two years and three months. You were released on parole in February 2019 and you returned to Victoria to complete your parole in this state.
20A psychological report from Ms Carla Ferarri was tendered on your behalf. You told Ms Ferarri that, after your first period of imprisonment in NSW, you were unable to refrain or cease using cocaine. You told her: “I just wouldn’t know when to stop; even when I was on parole, and had a 10pm curfew, I would go home and keep using at home then go back out to meet my friends to keep partying as soon as curfew ended at 6am.” This should have been a wakeup call then that you had a significant addiction. One would think that the experience of going to prison in NSW for two years and nine months, in your mid-twenties, for your involvement in the movement of a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine, would have motivated you to stay away from drug use and from any association with people who use or sell drugs. You were on parole in Victoria, you had a curfew, you were wearing an ankle bracelet, you had significant obligations and conditions while on parole, the first of which was not to commit any criminal offences while of parole. You breached that condition in a significant way by becoming involved in the offending that brings you before this Court, but it seemed you already breached that condition by your resumption of the use of cocaine. This is a matter that must be taken into account in assessing your prospects of rehabilitation. I must also have regard to the weight to be given to specific deterrence as a result of this course of events.
Your evidence at the plea hearing
21You gave evidence at your plea hearing. You said that you did not receive any drug or alcohol treatment whilst in custody in NSW. When released on parole in Victoria you were initially supervised intensively for a period of one month, with two parole officer visits per week and two drug screens per week. That progressed to one visit and one drug screen per week. You said that initially it was your intention to lead a simple life, but you got caught up lying to yourself. You resumed the use of cocaine while on parole because you did not think you had a problem, you thought it was just recreational use, and did not want to admit to yourself that you had a problem with drug use. You did not realise you had a problem until you hit rock bottom.
22On one occasion you met up with some drug users in St Kilda and used drugs. You took Xanax, I presume to assist you to come down from the drugs, and you fell asleep and missed your curfew coming home. One of your sisters reported you to your parole officer. This is a credit to your sister that she was prepared to do that. Your sister found you in St Kilda, based on data from your ankle bracelet. It seems your family then confronted you in some form of intervention. You admitted that you were an emotional wreck and could not do this anymore. After discussion with your family, it was agreed that your family would pay for you to attend the Raymond Hadar Clinic, at considerable expense. You put this to the parole board and they approved your attendance there. It appears that this may have been a turning point for you.
23You attended the Hadar Clinic for a period of approximately three months. The first month was an intensive routine at a facility in Geelong. You would get up at 7am and participate in a structured day until evening NA meetings. You had no access to mobile phones and were allowed one phone call per day. After the first month you transitioned to a facility in Essendon where you spent two months. That facility was slightly more lenient but still a full time daily structured therapeutic program with monitored attendance and curfew times. You provided regular urine screens and remained drug free. You gave evidence that you have now been drug free for a period of 15 months. You said that you would like to go back to the Hadar Clinic upon your release from prison in order to consolidate your progress. You said that the process of going to the Hadar Clinic and the period of time you spent there was a wakeup call for you. You realised and admitted that you had a problem. It was the first time you had sought or received treatment for that problem. You gained a lot of support from the people you met in the Hadar Clinic. You said that the people you associated with for drug use are not in your life anymore.
Time spent at the Hadar Clinic
24Two letters were tendered on your behalf at the plea hearing from the Hadar Clinic. In the second of those two letters, dated 29 June 2020, it was stated that you successfully completed the one-month program at the Geelong facility. You were then approaching the end of your two months stay at the Essendon facility. You had abstained from all mind- and mood-altering substances while in treatment. You made considerable progress and were a very positive member of the program. You were motivated to continue with your recovery and adhered to all aspects of the program.
25After you left the Hadar Clinic you spent another five weeks in the community. You were reporting to your parole officer and providing twice weekly urine screens. You participated in NA meetings either daily or every second day. You said that you remained drug free during that time. It was then that the police arrested you. And you were remanded in custody and your parole was cancelled, leading to the current period of incarceration, which will now be at least until 9 January 2022.
26The period of time you spent on parole upon release from prison in NSW until you entered the Hadar Clinic was not to your credit. You had conditions and obligations to your grant of parole that you flagrantly breached by your lifestyle and by the commission of these offences. However, I accept that for many drug users, the path to recovery is not an easy or linear one. I was impressed by the evidence you gave about hitting rock bottom and realising you had to change. You had not reached this point before. You took significant steps, with the assistance of your family, to address your problem. Any assessment of your current position must be a cautious one, but I accept that so far, these steps have been successful. You gave evidence that you have now been drug free for a period of 15 months.
27I have regard to the discussion and principles stated in Akoka v The Queen [2017] VSCA 214 at [95]-[112]. I have regard to the rehabilitative effect of you time spent at the Hadar Clinic. I also have regard to the restrictive nature of your time there, although your attendance was voluntary, you submitted yourself to a restrictive regime for a period of approximately three months. Whilst it is not a mathematical exercise, I take this time into account and give significant weight to it in mitigation. Through your time spent there, you have demonstrated, at this stage, your capacity for rehabilitation, and although the real test is yet to come, this allows for a meaningful assessment of your prospects of rehabilitation.
Prospects of rehabilitation
28I turn to your prospects of rehabilitation. Any assessment of your prospects of rehabilitation must be a cautious one. Your childhood and schooling speak of a young person with potential. You have very significant family support and a family who are prepared to intervene and assist with your rehabilitation. This is to their credit and to your benefit. You have demonstrated insight into your offending, as evidenced by your assessment by Ms Ferrari, and also through the evidence you gave at your plea hearing. I accept that you have developed insight into the problem of your drug use. You have demonstrated a commitment to your own rehabilitation and you have demonstrated some success in this endeavour.
29Nevertheless, your rehabilitation remains largely untested and will depend very much on your commitment to this ongoing process and how you choose to live your life after your release from prison. Although I remain cautious, I am prepared to assess your prospects of rehabilitation as being very good. I intend to impose a sentence that facilitates, as far as possible, your rehabilitation.
Plea of guilty
30You pleaded guilty and did so at an early opportunity. This also occurred during the covid era, and I have regard to the principles in Worboyes,[1] in particular, the need for sentencing Courts to give an actual and palpable amelioration of sentence as a response to the current crisis of the criminal justice system in this state. I accept that you have shown shame and remorse for your actions. You expressed this to Ms Ferarri, and I accept that your conduct since you entered the Hadar Clinic reflects this.
[1] Worboyes v R [2021] VSCA 169.
31I take into account that your entire time in custody since August 2020 has been spent during the covid era. This time in custody has been restrictive and onerous in a number of different ways. I accept that the burden of imprisonment has been greater during this time.
Totality
32The principle of totality requires me to have regard to the totality of the criminality and the totality of the sentence to be served by you. I must ensure that the total sentence to be served is a just and proportionate measure of the total criminality involved. To that end I must have regard to your offending in NSW and the sentence imposed upon you for that charge.
33That is a complex exercise in this case. I am in part constrained by the fact that I cannot order pre-sentence detention in relation to the sentences that I impose upon you. You will serve the entire head sentence of your NSW sentence, however that is a matter that must be expected of every prisoner who receives a parole sentence. You receive limited acknowledgement for your street time between periods of imprisonment as you reoffended during that time leading to your further incarceration. However, I do take account of the fact that, towards the end of that street time, you made the decision to attend at the Hadar Clinic, a decision that may be the turning point in your rehabilitation.
34Whilst I am constrained in some ways as to how I give effect to the principle of totality, to the extent that it is appropriate, I will moderate the sentence to be imposed upon you for these offences so as to comply with this principle.
Concurrency or cumulation
35Section 16 (3B) of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) requires that the sentences imposed upon you for the charges before this Court are to be served cumulatively upon any period of imprisonment served upon cancellation of a parole order.
(3B) Subject to subsection (3BA), every term of imprisonment imposed on a person for an offence committed while released under a parole order made in respect of another sentence of imprisonment ( the parole sentence ) must, unless otherwise directed by the court because of the existence of exceptional circumstances, be served cumulatively on any period of imprisonment which he or she may be required to serve in custody in a prison on cancellation of the parole order.
35. At the plea hearing, Mr Taaffe urged me to consider the following matters as constituting, in combination, exceptional circumstances –
(a) Your role in the NSW and Victorian offending
(b) Your plea of guilty, entered during the covid era
(c) The period of street time you spent before having your parole cancelled
(d) Credit for your time spent at the Hadar Clinic
(e) Your evidence of insight and remorse
36Mr Teo, on behalf of the prosecution, submitted that exceptional circumstances would have to be something unusual or outside of the ordinary, and that each of those matters listed above would fail to qualify as such. In response to that submission, Mr Taaffe directed me to the decision in Fariah v R [2021] VSCA 213 [25] where the Court of Appeal stated:
“We also consider that the mere fact that some individual circumstances may commonly be encountered by sentencing judges in the County Court will not by that fact alone necessarily deprive them of their character as substantial and compelling and exceptional and rare. Every case will necessarily depend on its particular facts. Circumstances which individually are relatively common may in combination enliven the exception in s 5(2H)(e).”
37In your case Mr Maroky, I was impressed by your evidence that you had gained insight into your drug problem. I was impressed by the steps you have taken through his attendance and participation in the program at the Hadar Clinic. Programs such as that would not be easy to commit to or remain at. I am satisfied that the commitment to fulfill the requirements of a program such as that at the Hadar Clinic puts you in a substantially different position than you were in at the time you committed the offences before this Court. The fact that you have made that change before you were breached on your parole order is also significant in my view. That progress in your rehabilitation allows for a completely different assessment of your prospects of rehabilitation and your risk of re-offending than would have been possible at the time of the commission of these offences, being the offences that led to the cancellation of your parole.
38In the assessment of whether there are exceptional circumstances here, I see these matters as the most compelling. Other matters listed above may provide context against which this matter may be assessed. But in all the circumstances of your case, I am satisfied that these circumstances are exceptional and justify an order that the sentence that I impose upon you today be served concurrently upon your remaining time in prison upon cancellation of your parole order.
39Mr Taaffe, on your behalf, submitted that I should impose a sentence upon you that involves a combination of imprisonment and a CCO where you may be released from prison either on or as close as possible to 9 January 2022 and then placed on a CCO with treatment conditions and possibly a work component.
40Mr Teo, on behalf of the prosecution submitted that a combination sentence was within range.
41I also have regard to the principles in Boulton.[2] In particular, the expression by the Court of Appeal that a CCO can be used to impose punishment on an offender, and to express the sentencing principles of denunciation, general and specific deterrence.
[2] Boulton v The Queen (2014) 46 VR 308.
42As I have said, I view this as significant offending. The quantity and purity of drugs involved, and the money exchanged, were far from small or trivial amounts. You were not a naïve or innocent participant in the activity that constituted the offending. However, I have assessed your culpability and degree of responsibility for the offending as being towards the lower end of the scale.
43You pleaded guilty at an early opportunity, during the covid era. I also take account of the added burden of imprisonment during the covid era. I intend to reflect substantial reductions in the sentence I would otherwise have imposed because of these factors. I also have regard to the principle of totality and I will moderate the sentence I impose upon you to reflect the totality of your offending. I take into account the time you spent at the Hadar Clinic – in two ways – it demonstrates that you have commenced and progressed in rehabilitating yourself from your drug addiction – and I also take account of the fact that you spent three months in a structured, restrictive regime where you participated in a therapeutic program. These factors, in combination, lead to a reduction in the term of imprisonment that I will impose upon you.
44I must still, through the sentence I impose, express the appropriate level of denunciation and general deterrence to reflect the seriousness of the offending. In addition, you must also receive an appropriate level of punishment and specific deterrence to reflect your role and conduct in the offending. I have taken the view that I can reflect these sentencing aims through an appropriately structured term of imprisonment combined with a CCO. I also take the view that additional punishment, denunciation and deterrence can be expressed through the terms of an appropriately structured CCO. I ordered that you be assessed for your suitability for a CCO and you were assessed as suitable.
45In all the circumstances you will be sentenced as follows –
(a) On each of the three charges of trafficking a drug of dependence, you will be sentenced to a period of four months imprisonment.
(b) I direct that each of those terms be served concurrently with each other and concurrently with your period of imprisonment being served on cancellation of your parole order. The effect of that is that you will serve four months imprisonment starting from today.
(c) In addition you will be sentenced to a Community Corrections Order for a period of 18 months. You will be ordered to perform 100 hours of unpaid community work. You will be supervised. You are to attend for assessment and treatment including testing as directed by your Community Corrections officer.
(d) On the summary charges of dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime and breaching a condition of your parole order by committing the trafficking offences, you will be sentenced to a period of one month’s imprisonment on each of those two charges. I direct that each of those terms be served concurrently with each other, concurrently with all other sentences imposed today, and concurrently with the period of imprisonment being served on cancellation of your parole. I make these orders for concurrency based on the finding of exceptional circumstances referred to in paragraph 38 of these reasons for sentence.
46For clarity and for the avoidance of any doubt, it is the intention of this order that you serve four months' imprisonment commencing from today, and that you then be released on the community corrections order.
47Pursuant to section 6AAA I declare that had you not pleaded guilty to these offences I would have imposed a term of eight months imprisonment and a two-year Community Corrections Order with 200 hours of unpaid community work.
48I make the pecuniary penalty order in the sum of $900, as applied for by the prosecution. Again, for clarity, I have not taken that order into account in coming to the sentences that I impose today.
49I further order forfeiture of the sum of $1,167.55 and two iPhones that were seized by police. I note that each of those orders was unopposed by the defence.
50Now, I'll just pause and conclude my reasons for sentence there. I note that it is now 10.26 am. Unfortunately, I'm told that this link ends at 10.30. I have been told that we could resume the link at 12.30 pm if we need to. Can I perhaps request, Mr Teo and Mr Taaffe - are the orders that I've made today, from your perspectives, clear and complete?
51MR TAAFFE: Yes, Your Honour.
52MR TEO: Yes, Your Honour.
53HIS HONOUR: I understand Mr Maroky has to provide his consent to the community corrections order. I might seek his verbal consent now. If Mr Maroky could be unmuted, please. Mr Maroky, can you hear me?
54OFFENDER: Yes, I can, Your Honour.
55HIS HONOUR: You've heard and understood the effect of the sentence that I've imposed upon you today?
56OFFENDER: Yes, I have, Your Honour.
57HIS HONOUR: You understand that it will be a term of imprisonment of four months combined with a community (indistinct)
58OFFENDER: Sorry, I couldn't hear the end of that. You had cut out.
59HIS HONOUR: Do you understand that it will be a term of four months' imprisonment that will be followed by a community corrections order?
60OFFENDER: Yes, I do, Your Honour. Thank you.
61HIS HONOUR: That community corrections order will be for a period of 18 months and will include supervision for 100 hours of unpaid community work, and that you attend for assessment and treatment, testing for drug addiction, as directed by your community corrections officer.
62OFFENDER: Thank you, Your Honour. That's fine.
63HIS HONOUR: They are the three additional conditions that I impose in addition to all of the mandatory conditions. Do you understand that you may breach a community corrections order by failing to comply with any of the conditions of the order?
64OFFENDER: Sorry. What was that, Your Honour? You were cutting out again.
65HIS HONOUR: Do you understand that you may breach a community corrections order if you fail to comply with any of the conditions?
66OFFENDER: Yes, I do, Your Honour.
67HIS HONOUR: And you will breach the order if you commit any offence punishable by imprisonment.
68OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
69HIS HONOUR: And if you are breached on that order, you'll be brought back before me, where you will fall to be re‑sentenced for the original offences.
70OFFENDER: I understand, Your Honour.
71HIS HONOUR: I can only place you on that order if you agree to be placed on it. Do you agree to be placed on it?
72OFFENDER: I agree.
73HIS HONOUR: You agree?
74OFFENDER: I agree, Your Honour. Yes. Thank you.
75HIS HONOUR: Now, Mr Taaffe will have the opportunity - you'll be provided with a written copy of that order, which you will sign in due course. That written copy will have all of those conditions on it. Mr Taaffe will have the opportunity of both explaining it to you and going through that written order with you. So if you have any questions, you can direct those to Mr Taaffe. I want to also just indicate as well that it will be part of the order that any hours successfully completed in the course of rehabilitation programs may be counted towards the 100 hours of unpaid community work.
76OFFENDER: Thank you, Your Honour.
77HIS HONOUR: All right. Mr Teo and Mr Taaffe, are there any other matters?
78MR TEO: Sorry, can I just clarify that last point? Did Your Honour state that any hours undertaken for assessment and treatment can be credited towards community work?
79HIS HONOUR: Any of the hours that are successfully ‑ ‑ ‑
80MR TEO: Any.
81HIS HONOUR: ‑ ‑ ‑ completed - yes. So yes is the short answer to your question.
82MR TEO: Yes. Thank you, Your Honour.
83HIS HONOUR: Mr Taaffe, any matters?
84MR TAAFFE: No matters, Your Honour. Could I just say, for Mr Maroky's benefit, that we have a phone conference booked for tomorrow afternoon, where we can discuss these matters.
85MR TEO: It does appear that he was disconnected right on the dot of 10.30, Your Honour.
86HIS HONOUR: I think Mr Maroky just dropped out before you said that with him, but no doubt he'll receive that phone call from you, Mr Taaffe.
87MR TAAFFE: Thank you, Your Honour.
88HIS HONOUR: All right. Thank you both for your written and in‑court submissions in this matter. We will adjourn the Court.
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