Director of Public Prosecutions v Melbourne
[2025] VCC 335
•25 March 2025
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT WODONGA CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
CR-24-00313
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JAMES LESLIE MELBOURNE |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE MOGLIA | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 25 March 2025 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 25 March 2025 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Melbourne | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2025] VCC 335 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:Criminal Law – Sentence – guilty plea –
Catchwords: Sentencing – Extortion – Burglary – Aggravated Burglary – Gang Related Offending – Fair Prospects of Rehabilitation – Disassociation with Gang – Childhood Trauma and Abuse – drug-related offending - substance Abuse.
Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1958 (Vic); Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)
Cases Cited:Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37
Sentence:Total effective sentence 3 years and 2 months with non-parole period of 2 years.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | D. Guesdon | Office of Public Prosecutions |
For Accused | C. Pearson | Emma Turnbull Lawyers |
His HONOUR:
1James Leslie Melbourne, you have pleaded guilty to extortion carried out between 19 and 31 May 2023, and related burglary and aggravated burglary occurring on 1 June 2023.
Summary of offending
2The agreed basis for your guilty plea is set out in the prosecution opening dated 7 February 2025.
3In summary, in May 2023 you were a member of the Finks motorcycle club. Members of the club had become unhappy with the victims Michael Brown and William Pollard ostensibly because it was thought they had been talking about one of your co-members, Josh Miller.
4On 19 May 2023, Brown walked into your street in the hope of meeting Miller to clear up any misunderstanding.
5You and Miller approached him, when Miller threatened Brown and demanded $5,000 from him, if he did not within 24 hours name the person who had been talking about club members or activities. Otherwise, Miller threatened their house would be run-through, their heads bashed, and their stuff taken.
6A week later, on 27 May 2023, Jarrad Searby, the leader of your club, sent you a text message raising the subject of the extortion demand and a debt you seemingly owed him.
7On 31 May 2023, you again exchanged messages with Searby, discussing paying Brown and Pollard a visit to get money or drugs, or both, from them. In that exchange Searby pressured you about money he said you owed him. You responded that you were trying to sell everything you had in order to do so.
8At about 3pm that afternoon, at Searby’s instigation, you and Miller confronted Brown at his front door and demanded the name or the $5,000 under threat of having their heads caved-in with bats and stuff taken. Brown refused and said he was going to call police, in response to which you threatened that doing so would make it worse.
9Pollard intervened to de-escalate the situation and offered to withdraw money from an ATM to give you.
10You went with him to the Birralee shops where he withdrew $700 from a bank account. He gave you the money along with his phone number, when that was also demanded of him. You then left in a van driven by Searby (Charge 1, extortion).
11That night Searby kept up his contact with Pollard, sending multiple massages making demands and threats against him and Brown.
12Soon after midnight on 1 June 2023, you received messages from Searby about the victims ignoring his demands and that it was time to break into their home. You indicated you were willing to do so, and you were going to sneak over the back fence and sit on their couch until they paid.
13You entered Brown and Pollard's home soon after, and by about 1.11 am Searby sent you a further message saying he was coming in to join you.
14Mr Brown drove past at about 2.30 am and saw your group inside his house. (Charge 2 - burglary).
15In fact, Brown stopped and spoke to you to arrange a meeting between you and Pollard about an hour later to hand over money.
16Police attended the address a few hours later to find Searby still parked outside. He told police that the occupant of the house owed him money. As to the existence of any debt owed to you or your group, I do not accept that there was any legitimate basis for any such debt whatsoever.
17During that morning Searby sent you further messages including threats that you were to pass on to Brown, which you did, as directed. Searby asked you to get more information about them which you agreed to do as a way of paying off your debt to him.
18In furtherance of the campaign that had been orchestrated by Searby you again went to Brown and Pollard’s home at about 5pm that day. This time you acted alone.
19You walked into the house through the front unlocked door, uninvited, with an intention to commit an assault of some kind. After entering you armed yourself with a hatchet. Brown was inside with a friend, packing his bags, and you confronted him in the kitchen (Charge 3, aggravated burglary).
20You grabbed him by the collar and held the hatchet to his throat. His friend then ran from the house screaming. You pushed Brown to the ground and then followed the friend outside.
21Once outside you were confronted by the friend’s partner, who had just arrived. You unzipped your jacket revealing the hatchet and said something about being part of a club.
22In the meantime, Brown had also walked outside and, believing you would attack him again with the hatchet, he struck you to your forehead with a hammer and then escaped with his friend and partner.
23You then left the scene to your girlfriend’s and later an associate took you to Wodonga Hospital. You were found to have a fractured skull and were transferred to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for treatment.
24Police arrested you at the hospital on 2 June 2023.
25Neither Brown nor Pollard have provided a victim impact statement. The prosecution case, which by your plea you accept, provides an ample basis for finding that your offending would have had significant harmful psychological effects on the victims, including because of your brazen attack on their home.
26The offences in Charges 2 and 3 occurred also while you were on bail for unrelated offences.
Procedural history
27You have remained in custody since your arrest on 2 June 23.
28Following your arrest police interviewed you and you answered their questions giving full admissions to what you had done.
29At a contested committal hearing on 28 February 2024, having been granted leave to cross-examine witnesses, you proceeded without doing so but indicated a plea of not guilty.
30On 22 July 2024, before another judge, you sought a sentence indication on the same charges in the current indictment, however, you did not accept the indication given.
31At a directions hearing on 8 November 2024 the matter was adjourned for trial in the circuit commencing 17 March 2025, however, you then settled the case and pleaded guilty at an arraignment on 23 January 2025.
32I accept that your plea represents you taking responsibility for your actions, facilitating the course of justice to some degree and that it has ultimately avoided the cost and inconvenience to the community of a trial.
33Your conduct of the case and comments you have made to family and the psychologists satisfy me that you have demonstrated remorse for what you did, albeit not necessarily addressed to the victims.
34Searby was sentenced on 27 May 2024, having pleaded guilty at the committal stage about a year earlier than you. He received two years and six months for blackmail and two years (seven months cumulative) for the burglary.
35Miller was sentenced on 25 January 2025, soon after your arraignment, on blackmail and other unrelated offences. He received 18 months combined with a CCO.
Personal circumstances
36You relied on the following material during your plea hearing:
Exhibit 1- psychological report of Warren Simmons dated 8 April 2024;
Exhibit 2 - a neuropsychological report of Dr Matt Treeby dated 18 July 2024; and
Exhibit 3 - a reference of Jennifer Groves, your mother.37Your childhood, your counsel submits, was marred by disadvantage. You report that your mother drank heavily and often re-partnered and that some of these partners were violent in the home. Your parents had separated when you were young. You have twin half-brothers from your mother’s subsequent relationship.
38Due to strained relationships at home, at about 11 years old you ran away and subsequently became a ward of the state. Your relationship with your mother has now significantly improved.
39Mr Simmons concluded that your childhood was certainly one of neglect and that the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder would have increased your vulnerability to substance abuse. You report that you were introduced to methamphetamine at age 12 by other people living in the State units with you. You had a difficult time in foster care, staying away from the units wherever possible, often ending up on the streets.
40You struggled at school; it was clearly not for you. You were expelled at least once in primary school and recall being homeschooled following this for some months. You then returned and attended until part way through Year 8.
41Over the years, however, you have held down jobs, mainly labouring, since you left school. Most of these jobs lasted no longer than two years, save for a job at an aluminium smelter where you stuck at it for three years following rehab. You confess that work suffered when you reconnected with drug-using associates, and you got sucked back into old ways.
42As for drug use, tragically your introduction to methamphetamine was a catalyst for your ongoing addiction. You admit using methamphetamine frequently from about 13 years of age until you were locked-up when you were 19, for the first time.
43You have had some periods off the drugs over the years since then. You also report remaining abstinent from 2015 for a significant period following a six-month program at a New South Wales rehabilitation centre.
44You remained abstinent until you relapsed on your return to Wodonga in 2017. This is significant and to your credit. When you get the right support and keep a positive frame of mind you can succeed, and you have demonstrated this.
45Nevertheless, you have a relevant criminal history. In 2013, you were placed on a CCO for criminal damage, theft and other offences. Later that year you were sentenced to six months, suspended, for burglary, theft and breaching the earlier CCO. In 2014 for theft, reckless endangerment, damage, assault with a weapon, burglary and breaching your suspended sentence, you received 12 months with a six-month non-parole period. In 2015 in New South Wales, you received a suspended sentence of five months for breaking and entering and related offences. In 2017 for burglary, theft and other offences you were placed on a CCO. In 2018 in New South Wales, you received five months' home detention for the equivalent of burglary and theft.
46Your current time in custody has been spent in protection units which I accept has made time harder for you, particularly because of the reasons for that. You have worked, including in the kitchens, which I also find to be consistent with you having the capacity to live a pro-social life.
47You mother provided a reference that gives a candid account of the last few years and how you were seduced by a gang mentality and its leaders. This seems to have involved getting side-tracked into other dead-ends that have simply resulted in greater debt and troubles for you to overcome, including with your brothers. The support of your mother and brothers, however, is very significant. For many in your circumstances these bridges will have been well and truly burned. You should be grateful and on your release you should make the most of what they have to offer.
Sentencing issues
48As to sentencing, the maximum penalty for extortion is 15 years' imprisonment, for burglary it is 10 and for aggravated burglary it is 25 years. The maximum penalty for the summary offence of offending whilst on bail is three months.
49Your offending on Charges 2 and 3 is made more serious by you being on bail at that time.
50In relation to extortion, I note the charge only alleges a threat to cause injury which is a less grave version of that offence than one in which there was a threat to kill, all other things being equal.
51That said, you engaged in the extortion over a number of days involving threats to harm the victims, invade their home, shoot their pets and steal their property. The demands you were involved in making against them were entirely without any lawful basis and were utterly unjustified.
52The conduct involved in Charges 1 and 2 are more serious because you acted in company with others. The burglary involved some planning and co-ordination between you. Your actions demonstrated a degree of initiative and purpose on your own part, albeit in the context of Searby exercising influence as your creditor and as the leader of your club. Your offending was part of an endeavour to bully the victims using stand-over tactics.
53The burglary was conducted over more than an hour in the middle of the night. It was done on the very same night that you had threatened to do so, underscoring the brazenness of your approach.
54I will take care to sentence you on the extortion and burglary so as to avoid double punishment. I will not increase your sentence on the extortion on the basis that you then carried out the burglary. However, the sentences on the burglary and the aggravated burglary charges will reflect the context in which they occurred, and the aggravated burglary will reflect it being a repeat of the earlier burglary.
55Objectively this string of offences was very grave.
56Your counsel submitted that your early childhood experiences enlivened the considerations in the case of Bugmy, and the prosecutor agreed. I will give those matters weight accordingly and accept that it reduces your moral culpability.
57You counsel Mr Pearson also submitted that your part in the offending is partly explained by your debt to Searby on which he sought to collect by getting you to commit these offences.
58In all the circumstances your moral culpability, I find, to be somewhat reduced.
59Your counsel submitted that due to your brain injury you suffered as a direct result of the aggravated burglary, I should reduce your punishment because you will live the remainder of your days with that impairment. I accept that and have attached mild weight to this in light of the degree of impact on your day-to-day abilities in involves, as reflected by the report of Dr Treeby.
60Your counsel also submitted that you no longer associate with the Finks and you have received threats whilst in prison. Thus, you been held in protection units. I accept that this combination of circumstances have and will continue to make time in custody more onerous.
61I also accept that your departure from such company bodes well for your future.
62General deterrence, that is sending a message to others, denunciation and just punishment in the circumstances such as this, require particular weight which I have given them.
63The significance of your criminal history lies in the similarity of your theft and burglary offences over the years, the number of sentences you have received and the regularity with which you have re-offended. I accept, however, that this episode represents the most serious offending you have ever committed.
64In those circumstances I attach, albeit only moderate weight, to the need to deter you specifically and to protecting the community from you.
65Overall, I have had regard to the totality of what you did and have revisited the orders for cumulation that I propose to make in order to ensure the total sentence remains in proportion to your part of that scheme.
66I have considered the sentences imposed on Searby and Miller for offences that are common between you. As the prosecutor submitted, you will be sentenced on par with Miller on the extortion charge. Also, as was agreed, I will take a similarly proportioned approach to your sentence on the burglary so as to distinguish you from Searby on that charge.
67I accept what your counsel submitted about the aggravated burglary being the most serious offence in the case, and in sentencing you for it I will have regard to the particular circumstances in which it arose, namely, the role of Searby and others, albeit they were not charged with it.
68I find your prospects for rehabilitation to be, as the prosecutor submitted, fair. You made admissions to police, and you pleaded guilty. You have also made a significant change in your life with respect to the company you keep. The changes you will make on your return to the community about drug use are yet to be seen, but given the significance of this whole saga, I will give you the chance to prove yourself to the Parole Board at an earlier stage of the total sentence than I would have, but for, the challenges you face inside.
69As both parties accepted, the only type of sentence that is appropriate is one that attracts a parole period.
70I sentence you as follows:
(a) On Charge 1, extortion, 18 months;
(b) On Charge 2, burglary, 18 months;
(c) On Charge 3, aggravated burglary, two years and six months;
(d) On the summary charge you are convicted and discharged.
71Three months of the sentence on Charge 1 and five months of the sentence on Charge 2 are to be served cumulatively upon each other and the sentence on Charge 3.
72The total effective sentence is 3 years and 2 months.
73I fix a non-parole period of 2 years.
74I declare that you have served 662 days and direct that this be reckoned as a period already served under the sentence.
75In accordance with s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, if you had not pleaded guilty I would have imposed a sentence of 4 years and 3 months and fixed a non-parole period of 2 years and 10 months.
Ancillary orders
76The prosecutor seeks a disposal order in relation to the hatchet, which you do not oppose, and I will make.
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