Director of Public Prosecutions v Michailidis

[2017] VCC 66

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 16-01185

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LAZOROUS MICHAILIDIS

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE ALLEN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	7 February 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Michailidis
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 66

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr J. Henderson
For the Accused	Mr T. Burns

HIS HONOUR: 

1Lazorous Michailidis, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, two charges of knowing and possessing explosive substances, one charge of possession of a precursor chemical and one charge of possessing a drug of dependence. You have also pleaded guilty to a number of related summary offences.  I will come back to them in due course.

2The circumstances of your offending is set out in the prosecution opening, which was tendered and marked as Exhibit A.  I do not propose to rehearse those details now, but they are set out there in that document.

3In November 2015, in an act gross stupidity, a little after 12:05 in the morning, you placed an improvised explosive device on a hotplate in a barbeque, at a park near where you live and exploded it.  No one was near, it was in the middle of the night. Nevertheless, the explosion caused damage, not only to the barbeque, but to a nearby shelter.  The total cost of restoring the damage was in excess of $8,000.  This is a serious example of this serious offence and it was incredibly stupid.  It is yet another example of you giving into the temptation to engage in this sort of behaviour. 

4Both psych reports and your history demonstrate you have had a lifelong fascination with fire and explosives.  Rather than doing something about it you have continued to give into the temptation to play around with those things.  That must stop obviously.

5After some time, police executed a search warrant at your house, as you were a suspect in relation to this incident.  They found drugs of dependence there.  They also found some cartridge ammunition and money, which were the subject of summary Charges 7 and 11.  They found some explosive material, which is the subject of Charge 2, the possession of explosive substances. They found some sodium hydro phosphate, which is a precursor chemical, which is the subject of Charge 3.  Other explosive substances we found, which are the subject of Charge 5. You committed these offences whilst on bail, in relation to other matters.  That gives rise to summary Charge 13, commit indictable offence whilst on bail.

6You have now spent a long period, 418 days, in pre-sentence detention awaiting sentence in relation to this matter.  I am told that amounts to about 13 and a half months.  There is no doubt, at all, that the gravity of your offending calls for the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment to be served; 13 months will be reckoned as time served. 

7You have admitted a large number of prior convictions.  As the report from the Department of Justice summarises, you first appeared before the courts in 2001.  Over the years, you have acquired a large number of convictions relating to violent offences, drug offences, dishonesty offences, driving and property offences and a number of offences in relation to explosives. You have previously been sentenced to a sentence of imprisonment by His Honour Judge Tinney, in this court, to a lengthy sentence of imprisonment in relation to very similar offending.  In fact, you have been sent to gaol on several occasions.  You have not learnt in gaol.  It would seem that the effect of gaol upon you, in terms of what the law calls specific deterrence, that is deterring you from reoffending, is a waste of time.  You have not been deterred.

8Of great concern is the observation in Professor Carroll's report at p.12, that he, a very experience forensic psychologist, has concerns about prolonged incarceration in a prison setting.  He says that it seems that you are comfortable in gaol, you make friends there.  The concern is that the longer you spend in gaol, exposed to pro-criminal influence, that is bad people, the greater the prospect of you reoffending. Professor Daffern said in his report that the sooner you leave prison and embark on appropriate assistance for your longstanding drug problems, the better the prognosis in terms of future risk of reoffending; that is, the better the prognosis in terms of the protection of the community from you continuing to behave in this criminal and bizarre way.  You have got to get on top of the drugs.

9You have suffered serious psychotic symptoms.  I accept the opinion of both the experienced forensic psychologists in this matter that those symptoms are related to your drug abuse.  When you stop using drugs you become well again.  You have now developed, over the years, what has been described as an antisocial personality disorder.  That means you have a tendency to act in a criminal way, to be dishonest, deceitful, to disregard the rights of others and to be completely oblivious to the impact of your behaviour on others. You have indicated that you want to get on top of these problems.  You, unlike many of your mates in gaol, are lucky.  You have a decent law abiding family who are there to support you.  Not only to provide you with stable accommodation, so many other people who get out of gaol have go nowhere to go.  You do, you have got your home.  You have got your mother and your father who love you and your brother.  So many people who get out of gaol have got no chance of getting a job, particularly people with a record like yours.  Seven gaol sentences.  Violent offending, dishonest offending, never get a job.  You will because your family will give you a job.  There is a family business which you have worked in before that will keep you busy.  You are so lucky.  Do not waste it.

10In support of his comprehensive plea in mitigation on your behalf, Mr Burns relied on a very detailed psychological report from Professor Andrew Carroll, which was marked as Exhibit 2.  As a result of the powerful submissions that he made on the last occasion, I decided to get an updated report from Forensicare; Professor Carroll's report was nearly a year out of date.  I have now received that report.  It will be marked Exhibit B.  I have also now received a report which I ordered after having heard from Mr Burns on the previous occasion, a report from the Department of Justice will be marked Exhibit C. I am not going to go into great detail about the contents of those reports.  They are exhibits.  They are on the court file, I will briefly refer to some of the matters there.  Both of those experts are in agreement about the depth of your problem, the importance of strict, close, supervised community treatment if there is to be any chance of rehabilitating you.  Both of them agree that nothing is achieved by keeping you locked up for long periods in gaol, other than to make you worse in terms of your criminal behaviour. On the positive side, the pre-sentence report notes that, in the past, you have been given the opportunity of community dispositions.  You successfully completed your parole in 2013.  You have successfully completed an intensive corrections order in 2010, and your last community corrections order or community based disposition, as it was called then in 2009, you also successfully completed.  That is a positive thing.  That gives me confidence that, if I release you on a CCO, you will comply with it and it might achieve something.  Hopefully it will.  You are now older and more mature than you were then.  You have spent a long time in gaol. The pre-sentence also reports, on a positive side, that you had a stable upbringing, that you have a close relationship with your parents, as evidenced by their presence here again today.  Also, that they continue to offer you ongoing support, accommodation and employment.  These are very positive things in terms of your prospects of rehabilitation.  You had difficulties in the past when you were abusing drugs, shockingly.  When you committed these offences, you were off your head because of the drugs and that was, in part, due to the way that you reacted to the end of your relationship.  As I gather, although there are some issues you still need to deal with about that, you have largely gotten over that and you are now ready to move forward as a single man living with your family and working with them.

11Having weighed all these matters up and taking in terms of account of course your plea of guilty, I am prepared to sentence you in a way that enables your release today.  So on all these charges, which in my view are related to one another, that is on the indictable matters and the summary matters, save for the summary charge of possess cartridge ammunition, you are sentenced to be imprisoned to an aggregate term of 418 days.  On the charge of possess ammunition, you will be fined $300 and I will allow you a stay of three months to pay that fine. 

12I order that upon your release, you will be serving a community corrections order for a period of three years, do you understand that? It is intended to be a long time because that in itself is punishment.  It is also intended to be for a long time in order to ensure that you are given as much treatment and support as you need.   Both the experts say that you need long term intensive treatment. The order will run for three years to facilitate that, to make that possible.  Do you understand? There will be conditions to the order, in addition to the mandatory conditions, you will be required to be subject to supervision, you will be required to undergo assessment and treatment in relation to drug addiction, assessment and treatment in relation to mental health.  You will be required to undergo any courses designed to reduce the prospect of you reoffending and you will be subject to judicial monitoring. The first judicial monitoring hearing will take place in three months from today.  Now that is a long time.  I am allowing that long period of time so that the Office of Corrections can get the order up and running and will have you assessed and put the programs in place and so the report I will receive will tell me how well you are going.

13You have done these orders before and apparently you have done them well.  That is what I expect you to do.  Now you understand, don't you, that the management conditions require, firstly, that you are not to commit any further offence within the period of the order.  That is three years.  That is a big change for you, isn't it.

14OFFENDER:  Yeah.

15HIS HONOUR:  No further offending within three years.  You must also comply with the other mandatory conditions. You must accept visits, if required, and attend all appointments.  You must not leave Victoria without permission for three years.  You will get permission if you have got a good reason.  If you are going on a family holiday or something, they will give you permission, and you must get permission to leave Victoria.  You must inform them of any change of address or change of employment within two days of any such change. You must also comply with the other conditions I have mentioned. You must attend any appointment for supervision, you must attend any appointment that is made for assessment or treatment.  If you do not, you will be in breach.  If you breach this order, you will be brought back before me and, upon breach, the first option I will consider will be to re-sentence you in relation to these matters, do you understand?

16OFFENDER:  Yep.

17HIS HONOUR:  And that means in simple language to send you back to gaol, to impose a further gaol term.  Do you understand that?

18OFFENDER:  Yes.

19HIS HONOUR: That is not a threat, I am just letting you know what the consequences will be. 

20HIS HONOUR:  If something goes wrong, you go back to Corrections and tell them what has gone wrong.

21OFFENDER:  Yep.

22HIS HONOUR:  I will see you on 8 May for the first judicial monitoring hearing, do you understand?

23OFFENDER:  Yep.

24HIS HONOUR:  It will be your responsibility to get yourself here, do you understand?  You must not forget that date. It will be shocking if you do.  What are you going to do about your drug problems now?

25(Community Corrections Order signed and acknowledged.)

26Had you not pleaded guilty to these matters, Mr Michailidis, I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for four years with a minimum of three.  Do you understand that?

27OFFENDER:  Yes.

28HIS HONOUR:  That will give you some sort of idea about what will happen if you breach this order and I have to re-sentence you.

29I have now signed that order, the community corrections order.  Thank you.

30I should make the order if I have not made it expressly.  I declare that you have already served 418 days by way of pre-sentence detention. 

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