Director of Public Prosecutions v Mazzeo

[2025] VCC 196

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT SHEPPARTON

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-24-00260

CR-24-01671

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JOSEPH MAZZEO

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CHETTLE
WHERE HELD:	Shepparton
DATE OF HEARING:	23 October 2024, 12 February 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	12 February 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Mazzeo
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 196

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. Teo	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr M. Kats	Marshall Jovanovska Ralph Criminal Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1Joseph Mazzeo, you have pleaded guilty to two indictments. The first, Indictment No. P11011439, relates to your unwarranted demands made to Walter Carter.  The second indictment, No. Q10353407, relates to a burglary, theft of firearm, theft, prohibited person possessing a firearm, prohibited person possessing imitation firearm and possession of a drug of dependence.  That offending relates to you burgling a neighbour's home, stealing two weapons, and selling them.

2The facts of your offending are set out in Exhibit A, the summary of prosecution opening which covers both sets of offending.  Mr Kats informed me that I can treat that document as an agreed statement of fact, and I sentence you on the basis of the facts set out in that document which I incorporate into these reasons for sentence.  There is no need for me then to go over the facts in any detail, we have been canvassing them today and you know fully well what I am sentencing you for.

3You have admitted a prior criminal history, which is extensive.  You have numerous prior convictions.  Significantly, you were undergoing a community corrections order in respect of an offence for blackmail and extortion at the time you committed the offending, the burglary theft of firearm and prohibited persons charges.  You have had times in custody in the past, relatively short ones, and you have had numerous community corrections orders. 

4I had you assessed for a community corrections order and you were found unsuitable.  An updated report in relation to the order you are currently undergoing was provided as well and you have incurred a number of unacceptable absences in relation to that.  Significantly, you committed serious offences whilst you were on an order.

5Your personal history is set out in the material provided.  I have a report from Dr Aaron Cunningham and I have a psychological report from Warren Simmons, both which sets out your background. 

6As I explained to your counsel, I accept that your personal background carries with it elements of the principles set out by the High Court in Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37. Those principles have application to you. Your limited IQ aggravates your situation.

7In your favour you have pleaded guilty, and are therefore entitled to a reduction to the sentence I would otherwise impose to reflect the fact that you have pleaded guilty. 

8You also co-operated with the police, both when you made full admissions to the police - indeed you would not have been able to be prosecuted but for the admissions - and you have assisted the authorities with the prosecution of your co-accused, giving evidence at the committal, and you have undertaken to give evidence in the future if you are required to do so, although it appears that you will not.

9You receive a reduction in sentence to reflect the Bugmy principles, arising from your limited IQ to which I have referred and as set out in the neuropsychological report tendered.  Clearly, your big problem now is methylamphetamine.  You committed the offences that I am to sentence you for in order to fund a methylamphetamine habit.  You have tried in the past to cure yourself of the problem but have not been able to do so.

10Ultimately, the nature of your offending was so serious that in my view nothing other than a term of imprisonment is appropriate for your offending; I think you realise that.  It does give you some reason why you did not turn up when I was going to sentence you last time because you knew that you were probably going to gaol.

11I accept that you will find your time in custody more onerous because you are probably going to serve it in protection in order to keep people who might have reason to harm you away from you, and I have taken that into account in arriving at an appropriate sentence.

12Your blackmail offence was serious - you sought to obtain a lot of money from a man who was vulnerable.  The fact that he was engaged in dishonourable conduct does not excuse your attempt to extort him.

13Your burglary and attempted sale and movement of the imitation firearm was serious.  You thought you were dealing with a real firearm, but you were not.

14I have had regard to principles of totality and cumulation in arriving at an appropriate sentence for you.  I have reduced the sentence to reflect the matters in mitigation to which I have referred.

15On all charges you are convicted.  On the first indictment, P11011439, on the charge of blackmail, you are sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 12 months.

16On the second indictment, Q10353407, the burglary, theft of firearm, theft, prohibited person possessing firearm, prohibited person possessing imitation firearm and possession of a drug of dependence, you are sentence to an aggregate term of imprisonment of 12 months on all of those charges.

17I order that six months of the sentence imposed on the blackmail indictment P11011439 be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on indictment Q10353407.

18That is an effective term of imprisonment of 18 and I order that you serve 12 months of that sentence before being eligible for parole.

19I declare that 40 days of the sentence I have just imposed has already been served by way of pre-sentence detention.

20I make a compensation order in the sum of $1,000, that you pay Mr Carter $1,000.

21But for your pleas of guilty, I would have imposed an effective term of imprisonment of three years with a non-parole period of two.

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