Director of Public Prosecutions v Miller

[2018] VCC 1426

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-00987

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ALEXANDER MILLER

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	29 August 2018
DATE OF SENTENCE:	30 August 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Miller
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 1426

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Crown	Mr M. Perry	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr M. Turner	Mario Vaccaro

HIS HONOUR: 

1Alexander Luke Miller, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking a drug of dependence, namely methylamphetamine in not less than a commercial quantity, and one charge of knowingly deal with a Holden motor vehicle knowing to be the proceeds of crime.  You are also charged with one summary offence that you pleaded guilty to and I simply fine you $200 in relation to that. 

2You are 25 years of age, you pleaded guilty to a settled indictment and of course, must get the utilitarian benefit of that.  You have since your time in gaol used your time wisely.  And I accept that you are now at least expressing appropriate remorse.  You have very significant prior convictions and again, I will refer to that in a moment.

3A wealth of material on your behalf was tendered.  It is clear to me that you are probably coming to terms with what this is all about during the course of your gaol sentence as it is indicated from the summary and because of your prior convictions, it is a serious matter indeed.  In your early 20s, you became, it would appear, addicted to amphetamine.  You as a result of another investigation which has got nothing to do with me, on 13 May 2016, were sentenced for trafficking in amphetamine.  That had occurred between 1 June 2013 and 6 May 2015.  There were handling charges related to September of 2014.  I am aware of the details of those and they were in fact in relation to firearms, which is of real concern in your particular situation.

4At that time, the judge placed you on a community corrections order which I daresay, this breaches - even though it has got nothing to do with me either.  He sentenced you to 403 days imprisonment which is the time that you had served.  You therefore, as I understand the situation, were released in May of 2016, having just completed 403 days in custody with a CCO hanging over your head.  The nature of the trafficking that His Honour sentenced you for is this.  And I am quoting from His Honour's sentencing remarks. 

5"For the purpose of this sentence, your offending van be summarised as follows:  You were aged 20 at the time of the commission of the offences", which does not seem to fit with the age I was given of the time you started using but anyway, "You are considered to be at the middle range of offending".  You are an associate of co-accused Fogarty, Shortrose and Ors, using the alias Goose.  The summary outlines your conduct in relation to the trafficking including many conversations with co-accused, making arrangements for the trafficking and movement, trading, and exchanging and selling of ice and other drugs.  Your level of involvement was significant both in relation to supply and the sourcing of drugs.

6"The summary outlined in detail your willingness to use force and threats from time to time to enforce payment, including and on behalf of others.  Large sums of money were involved and you cooperated actively in assisting others to traffic, intimidate, plan and actively seek transactions involving ice, firearms, and other property in exchange of ice.  Your level of involvement was significant and enthusiastic, over an extended period of time."

7I could probably have used that summary just for this matter.  These matters and this trafficking commenced only a few months after you had been released from prison on those other matters.  These relate to trafficking between 31 August and 16 November of 2016.  Again, what His Honour said then pretty much applies to what we have got here.  You, allowing for the exaggeration that probably occurs in phone calls, were claiming that you had firearms - access to firearms, did not leave home without one.  You were heavily engaged in this and it could not be said that it was survival trafficking.  You were engaged in the business of trafficking with Bourne. 

8I accept in these circumstances that your role in all this is less than hers and in some respect, significantly less, over a much shorter period of time.  And as I understand it, again, not holding anyone to precise figures, the amount of ice that you were said to have trafficked in some 1600 grams which is significantly

more than your co-accused, Brown, but significantly less than that of Bourne.  And as I have indicated, the timeframes for you are significantly less. 

9The circumstances of the offending are contained within the Crown opening which has been tendered and I do not propose to go into it in any detail, as I did with the previous co-accused.  There are aspects of this which show it going way beyond just simply trying to provide for your own addiction.  Though I accept that you were using at the time.  For example, on 17 September 2016, you were talking to Bourne and she explained to you that Brown, Triffitt and Manger had been arrested the day before.  I understand that to be Luke Brown who I sentenced this morning.  You discussed with her why you just both did not just do a runner when talking about the police concentration in Wangaratta.  You say you might just stop dealing.  You then recount recruiting new methylamphetamines addicts.   "We've gotta get 'em dedicated", he says. 

10Later on in September, you are talking again to Bourne and you describe to her your activities of enforcement and debt collection and your planned activities for that evening are "Making a grand running through a house".  Later on a couple of days later you tell Bourne that - of an assault on a drug associate to which you claim to have caused injury to his head, using a Taser device on the victim and also threatening to use a shotgun.

11As I said the other day during the course of the plea, I accept that some of this is probably exaggeration but this is basically wannabe gangster stuff and the community cannot tolerate it.

12In any event, that is the nature of the offending.  It is serious.  General and specific deterrence obviously have to play a part.  The crime carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment as you are undoubtedly well aware.

13I then turn to the matters personal to you and matters of assistance were certainly provided.  You now have a child, though of course you had that child at the time that Judge Gucciardo was sentencing you.  Sworn evidence was given on your behalf that you in fact have changed.  I can only hope that that is so.  You began using in your early 20s and you then continued to use.  There are a number of references on your part.  During your time in gaol you have undergone courses and it is to be hoped that you are educating yourself and are able to eventually leave prison with a future in front of you.

14The references I take very much into account, as well as I take into account the evidence of your mother.  It is to be hoped that the child becoming older and visiting you in gaol is making you realise what being locked up does involve.  Of course it is concerning that you had the custody of that child during the course of this offending and obviously were not taking an awful lot of notice of it at that time.  But be that as it may, I am not going to speculate as to anything else.

15In the end it comes down to a man who is still only 25, who must have rehabilitation prospects, whose history and the suddenness of this reoffending after having done over a year in gaol causes me great concern about that.  But in any event, rehabilitation I have to take into account is because of your age.  The risk of you reoffending if you use I would say is 100 per cent but all I can really do in this situation is, as I say, I do not think background material helps.  This is getting a sentence for what you have done, hoping that at the age of 25 you can still turn your life around.

16Accordingly, in all the circumstances on the charge of trafficking a commercial quantity, six years.  Charge of proceeds of crime, three months concurrent.  That leaves an effective head sentence of six years, minimum term of four years, 6AAA, nine with a six.  PSD, 653 days.  There's no other orders I have to make are there?

17MR PERRY:  No, Your Honour.

18HIS HONOUR:  No.  Again, I haven't gone into the detail of the offending because the - of course the Crown opening is on - is an exhibit and can be accessed by anybody with a genuine interest in it. 

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