Director of Public Prosecutions v Mehrdadian

[2025] VCC 104

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-24-01340

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

IQAN MEHRDADIAN

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE HASSAN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	7 February 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	14 February 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Mehrdadian
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 104

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords:              Sentence — guilty plea – unauthorised person being in possession of a traffickable quantity of firearms (1 charge); failing to surrender a firearm related item upon a prohibition order (1 charge).

Legislation cited:       Firearms Act 1996; Sentencing Act 1991.

Cases cited:DPP v Iqan Mehrdadian [2020] VCC 688; Berichon v The Queen [2013] VSCA 319; R v Verdins [2013] VSCA 319.

Sentence:                  Total effective sentence of 3 years and 3 months. Non-parole period of 2 years and 3 months.

S.6AAA declaration: 4 years and 6 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 3 years and 3 months.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr C. Thomson	Solicitor for the Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr C. Farrington	TM Lawyers

HER HONOUR:

1Iqan Mehrdadian, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of being an unauthorised person being in possession of a traffickable quantity of firearms the maximum penalty for which is 10 years' imprisonment. You have also pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to surrender a firearm related item upon a prohibition order for which the maximum penalty is 5 years' imprisonment and to the summary charge of failing to comply with a direction to assist for which the maximum penalty is 2 years' imprisonment.

2The agreed facts and circumstances of your offending are as follows.

3

On 7 March 2023 police executed a search warrant at 10 Salisbury Terrace, Mickleham, where you lived. Police seized your phone at this address and subsequently downloaded its contents. A conversation on 30 January 2023 disclosed that you were offering two firearms for sale. They were a

.308 Winchester Howa Brand Model 1500 bolt action repeating rifle and a .22 Long Rifle calibre BSA Ten bolt action repeating rifle.

4The firearms were found to be in the possession of your associate Aaron Sharp. The charge against you is put on the basis of you having and exercising access to the firearms pursuant to s3 of the Firearms Act. (Charge 1)

5A ballistics report prepared by the Victoria Police Forensic Services analysed the firearms and concluded both firearms were capable of discharge upon modification.

6During the execution of the search warrant on 7 March 2023 police served a Firearms Prohibition Order on you. You then failed to surrender firearms related items in your possession, namely five rounds of .44 magnum ammunition and one round of .44 magnum ammunition. (Charge 2).

7Also during the execution of the search warrant police directed you provide information to allow them to access data on your storage device which you refused. (summary Charge 9).

8You were remanded into custody on 7 March 2023 for this and other offending.

9You pleaded guilty to these charges before me on 6 February 2025. This is not an early plea however this matter has run alongside a second indictment which alleged that you shot and seriously injured a man called Ibrahim El-Sagah. You contested those charges and were acquitted by jury verdict. Mr Farrington who appears on your behalf and who appeared at your trial, acknowledged that yours is a late plea on the current indictment but submitted that you have always been prepared to resolve the current charges but it was necessary to conduct the trial first because there was some overlap in the allegations which needed to be resolved before the plea indictment could be finalised.

10Turning to your personal circumstances.

11They are set out in detail in a psychological report of Carla Ferrari, consultant psychologist, dated 7 October 2019.

12You were born in March 2001. You are presently 23, almost 24 years old.

13You were born in Australia of Iranian heritage. You have an older sister and brother and a younger brother.

14You reported to Ms Ferrari that in Iran, your father had been a person of considerable status as a politician and doctor. You reported your family had converted from Islam to the Baha'i religion and faced persecution for this. Your family relocated to Australia where your father has since worked as a truck driver, bricklayer and labourer. The family's altered circumstances have caused significant tension between your parents however they have remained married.

15You reported to Ms Ferrari that you were academically gifted and were advanced a grade at primary school. However, you have no educational achievements due to your behavioural problems. You report having been expelled from schools on four occasions. Your family attempted to deal with your behaviour by moving you to live with your sister in Queensland when you were in Year 9 for a fresh start but you were expelled from your Queensland school for stabbing another student with a piece of wood. Year 9 was your last year of schooling. You have no employment history.

16You have a criminal history which begins in the Children's Court in April 2017. Thereafter you have had numerous appearances in the Children's Court and have served two lengthy stints in a youth justice centre. You were sentenced to a total effective sentence of 15 months in youth justice in August 2017 and 12 months in May 2018.

17You completed your VCAL (which is the vocational equivalent of the VCE) and obtained certificates in physical health and education in youth custody.

18

Your first appearance in the adult jurisdiction was in May 2020 when Judge Doyle of this Court[1] sentenced you to 13 months imprisonment in combination with a community correction order for two years on a charge of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm. This was very serious offending. You were only

[1]        DPP v Iqan Mehrdadian [2020] VCC 688

18 years old when in May 2019 you sold to a covert operative an assault rifle for $15,000. The firearm was a fully automatic assault rifle capable of firing 100 rounds a minute. His Honour concluded that you sold a very dangerous firearm to a person you believed was a criminal and that your offending fell into the higher category for sentencing purposes. Your youth was an important sentencing consideration.

19You breached the correction order imposed by Judge Doyle by further offending.

20In October 2022 you were sentenced in the Magistrates Court to 156 days' imprisonment and a 12-month correction order for the offence of intentionally causing injury.

21You were on this correction order when you committed the current offences. You were also a prohibited person as defined in s3 of the Firearms Act because not more than five years had expired since you finished serving a sentence of less than five years for an indictable offence.

22On your mental health and cognitive capacity, you sustained a head injury in a motorcycle accident on 31 August 2016. A medical report prepared by Professor Richard Bittar dated 27 November 2020 concluded that you sustained a mild to moderate severity traumatic brain injury with ongoing mild cognitive and behavioural effects.

23You reported to Ms Ferrari that you had attempted to take your life on two occasions after this accident. You also reported a history of anxiety and depression the episodes of which were usually in response to situational stressors. You reported that a friend was murdered in front of you, and you described to Ms Ferrari symptoms including flashbacks and nightmares about your friend's murder and your motorbike accident which she regarded were consistent with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

24You were medicated after your motorcycle accident on a combination of antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilisers. At the time Ms Ferrari wrote her report in October 2019 you were being prescribed Olanzapine which you were declining to take.

25You have been a habitual drug user since you were 16 years old. You have been addicted to cocaine since the age of 16 reporting that at one time you used over an ounce daily.

26Ms Ferrari gave the opinion that you presented with symptoms of a major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and cocaine use disorder. She gave the opinion that as a result of your brain injury, you struggle with reasoning, critical and consequential thinking, and are easily influenced or manipulated by your peers. She went on:

These deficits in cognitive functioning also impact on his ability to exercise appropriate judgment, make calm and rational choices or think clearly about his action and their consequences when experiencing heightened emotions or situations which are extremely stressful.

27You have been in custody for almost two years. You are abstinent from drugs and your health has improved and you have put on weight. You have not sought any psychological intervention in the custodial environment.

28You have the continued support of your family. Your parents, your sister and your brother have regularly attended your court appearances. Your brother has made plans for you to live with him, interstate if needs be, to get you away from your criminal associates.

29Turning to the matters raised with me by your counsel in mitigation of sentence.

30First, your plea of guilty,

31Secondly, that you are still a youthful offender.

32Thirdly, your ongoing family support which will help you achieve your rehabilitation.

33Fourthly, your acquired brain injury and the evidence of your poor mental health should be taken into account in a general sense.

34Fifthly, that you are doing as well as you can in custody.

35On the basis of all these considerations Mr Farrington submitted on your behalf that time served or time served in combination with a corrections order would be an appropriate sentencing disposition.

36The prosecution submitted that the only appropriate sentence was a sentence of imprisonment consisting of a head sentence and a non-parole period

37Turning now to my assessment of the objective gravity of your offending.

38This was serious offending. I am satisfied that you were acting as the intermediary for the sale of two firearms for a criminal purpose although I cannot specifically identify what that criminal purpose was. The evidence of the clandestine proposed sale of the firearms and your criminal history allow me to draw this conclusion, in conjunction with the evidence I heard  at your trial of your association with the Tiba family. I can use this evidence to draw this conclusion without traversing your acquittals in that matter

39Therefore, in accordance with the authorities your offending calls for a sentence falling in the higher order of seriousness for this offence. You were on a correction order at the time and were also a prohibited person which are both aggravating features of your offending.[2]

[2]        Berichon v The Queen [2013] VSCA 319

40Turning to the relevant sentencing considerations.

41First you are entitled to an appropriate mitigatory discount for your plea of guilty. I accept the defence submission that notwithstanding its lateness you were always prepared to plead guilty to these charges and accept criminal responsibility for your actions.  I accept there is some remorse implicit in your plea, but I stop short of making any finding of fully insightful remorse on your part.

42

Mr Sharp was sentenced in the Magistrates Court on charges of being a

non-prohibited person in possession of an unregistered category A longarm, possession of cartridge ammunition without a permit, possess methylamphetamine and failure to comply with a direction to assist. He was convicted and fined an aggregate of $2,500. I have no further information and as Mr Sharp faced different charges in a different jurisdiction, I can see no application of the principles of parity arise in sentencing you.

43On the topic of your mental health there was no submission that Verdins considerations were engaged in sentencing you - properly so given the content of the reports and given they are dated, nevertheless I take into account in a general sense that you do have an acquired brain injury and some mental health difficulties and also your youth in my assessment of the effects of incarceration upon you. You are doing reasonably well in custody because you are off drugs. Still prison is a difficult place for you because you are a young person with some cognitive and mental health problems.

44General and specific deterrence and community protection are at the forefront of the sentencing exercise. Firearms finding their way into criminal hands pose a great risk to the safety of the community and the sentence I impose must make it clear that anyone who seeks to participate in this trade will be punished.

45As for you, you were completely undeterred by the sentence imposed on you by Judge Doyle for selling a dangerous firearm to a person you thought was a criminal. You are still young and yet here you are again before the Court on a charge of possession of a trafficable quantity of firearms in breach of a correction order and while you were a prohibited person.

46You need to get the message that if you continue to offend your future is gaol. In my view you are attracted to the criminal lifestyle, and you need to get the message that it offers you nothing but gaol.

47You have the support of your family, and I am sure they will continue to try and help lead a more pro-social life however I remain guarded about your prospects of rehabilitation given the seriousness of your offending, your prior criminal history, and your serious drug addiction.  You are drug free in custody but in my view you remain susceptible to relapse upon release.

48I declined to have you assessed for a correction order, your offending is too serious and to give proper expression to all the various sentencing considerations the only appropriate sentence is a term of imprisonment consisting of a head sentence and a non-parole period.

49Taking into account all the matters I am required to under the Sentencing Act 1991 and matters personal to you, I intend to sentence you as follows. You can remain seated in the circumstances, Mr Mehrdadian.

50On Charge 1 you are convicted and sentenced to 3 years' imprisonment.

51On Charge 2 you are convicted and sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment.

52On the summary charge you are convicted and sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment.

53

Charge 1 is the base charge, and I direct 3 months of the sentence on Charge 2 be served cumulatively upon Charge 1. That makes a total effective sentence of

3 years and 3 months. I direct you serve a non-parole period of 2 years and

3 months.

54The presentence detention served is 710 days and I direct that be entered into the records of the court.

55I make the forfeiture order sought by the prosecution.

56But for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to 4 years and 6 months with a non-parole period of 3 years and 3 months.

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