Director of Public Prosecutions v Papadopoulos

[2022] VCC 1580

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT Melbourne

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-22-00537

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

STEFANOS PAPADOPOULOS

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JUDGE:	Her Honour Judge Wilmoth
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	12 September 2022
DATE OF SENTENCE:	15th September 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Papadopoulos
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 1580

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Criminal law -  sentence

Catchwords: Pleas of guilty to 2 charges of trafficking in a drug of dependence and two charges of possession of a drug of dependence – early plea – 25 year old offender using drugs since age 14 – difficult teenage years – gambling and drug addiction - voluntary attempts at rehabilitation – excellent progress in later programs – 14 months abstinence – insight – demonstrated excellent prospects for rehabilitation.           

Sentence: 53 days already served and 3 year CCO.   

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr M White	OPP
For the Accused	Mr V Andreou (Plea)	Christopher James Lawyers

Mr C Stathopoulos (sentence)

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HER HONOUR:

1Stefanos Papadopoulos, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of trafficking in a drug of dependence and two charges of possessing a drug of dependence.  The maximum penalty for trafficking is 15 years' imprisonment, and for possession of drugs is one year imprisonment, given that the possession itself was not related to drug trafficking. 

2The sentence I am going to impose will mean that you will not be returning to prison.  I will be imposing a Community Correction Order in addition to the term of imprisonment you have already served and I will explain why in the remarks which now follow.

3

On 7 April 2021, you were a passenger in a car driven by the co-accused

Matiu King

, when the car was stopped by police at an intersection in Camberwell.  The police saw a knife on the centre console and ordered you both to get out of the car which was then searched.  Multiple Zip Lock plastic bags containing a crystal substance, white powder, capsules and pills were found in the car and the boot.  An Australian passport and a bank document in your name were also found and a mobile phone and scales.

Later analysis proved these substances and pills to be methylamphetamine, cocaine, ketamine, oxycodone, MDMA and various cutting agents.  The weight of pure methylamphetamine was 130 grams, of pure cocaine 30 grams, of MDMA 8.4 grams and of ketamine 15 grams.

4You were arrested and interviewed, denying trafficking but admitting to the possession of small amounts of cocaine and ecstasy found on your person.  Initially, upon your arrest your state of intoxication from drugs was so extreme that you were taken to hospital by ambulance to be assessed.  Later you were remanded in custody and were bailed on 31 May 2021 after 53 days in custody.

5King pleaded guilty in the Magistrates' Court to possessing a controlled weapon, possessing diazepam and unlicenced driving, for all of which he was fined $500 without conviction.  The quantity of drugs amounted to a commercial quantity, but you were charged with trafficking simplicita.  The charges were resolved before the commencement of a committal hearing on 1 December 2021.  The case was adjourned for an application for summary jurisdiction, heard on 5 April 2022 when summary jurisdiction was refused.

6At the time of the offending you were 25 and you are now 26.  You were brought up in an intact family with one older brother.  Your parents are law-abiding and hardworking people who saw the importance of education and ensured you went to a high school with a good academic reputation.  You completed Year 12 and you went to RMIT where you partly completed a two year building diploma.

7

Very recently, you were assessed by a Consultant Psychologist,

Ms Andrea McNeill,

who provided a report dated 7 September 2022.  The very considerable detail contained in the report has provided the background information which follows. 

8Unfortunately, since your teenage years you had been using drugs and alcohol to varying degrees influenced by what you called a bad crowd.  In retrospect, it seems that with your parents' attention focused on your brother's escalating drug use and criminal activities, your difficulties at the time remained hidden from them, and your behaviour deteriorated, the more you identified with your misbehaving peers.

9As a 14 year old you were using large amounts of cannabis, followed by binge drinking as you grew older and varying daily or weekly amounts of cocaine, ecstasy and speed.  You also used a substance called nangs, which are small bulbs filled with nitrous oxide.  When consumed these produced a high of up to 20 seconds.  You were apparently consuming three to four thousand each week.

10

In July 2020, your general practitioner referred you to the

Wyndham Private Hospital noting excessive use of alcohol, cocaine and marijuana, with anxiety characterised by panic attacks.  You completed a voluntary 28 day program commencing in August 2020 which was followed by psychological counselling over about five months until January 2021.  The offending occurred about three months later.

11After spending 53 days in custody following your arrest you were released on bail to the CISP program, for intensive case management through that program.  You disclosed your problematic gambling on poker machines to pay for your drug use and your wish to address that issue.  You were assessed as suitable for CISP on 24 May 2021.

12

On 31 May you entered the DayHab Residential Treatment program as a

full-time inpatient client.  A report provided by the senior counsellor, Ms Kirchner, stated that you responded extremely well to treatment and made enormous strides towards your recovery.  You expressed your remorse and you gave valuable insight into your addictions and addictive behaviour.  In a report which was wholly positive, the writer considered that if you were to attend to all the recommendations of the program upon exit, you would be unlikely to offend or relapse.

13After the completion of the 56 day program at DayHab, you were referred to a Clinical Psychologist, Daniel Chable, who you saw for 20 sessions, from July 2021.  You were living at home with your parents and attending Narcotics Anonymous.  You commenced working with your brother in his metal fabricating business and you are still working there.

14

You have developed an interest in reading and you belong to a local gym. 

Mr Chable considers you will not engage in drug taking behaviour in future.  He said you have embraced the opportunity of living your life in a productive and interesting way.  This report reflects the observations and opinions also of

Ms Kirchner, in very similar terms.

15

Even more objectively, since July 2021 until recently, and indeed continuing, you have undertaken three urine screens per week, all of them negative.  On

10 November 2021, drugs were found in your possession in your bedroom, and although you were charged, the police took the view that those drugs were to be regarded as part of the drug scenario of 7 April, in other words they were “leftover” from that incident.  You will be pleading guilty, I am told, to those two possession charges later this month.

16Returning now to the report of Ms McNeill, she considered that as a child you saw yourself as falling short of the expectations of your parents, but your feelings of inadequacy were overlooked because of the demands placed on your parents when your brother abused drugs and offended.  Ms McNeill diagnosed Stimulant Use Disorder and Anxiolytic Use Disorder, both in remission, as you withdrew from all substances in custody.  She considers that you fill some of the criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder, consistent with your feelings of neglect, and this has resulted in distorted relationships explaining your avoidance of meaningful contact with people and your resort to impulsivity, expressed through gambling and drug use.

17It should be noted that Ms McNeill reported you did have some counselling as a Year 7 student, both at school and externally, but you never disclosed your drug use to those professionals, and not always to others later.  Importantly, Ms McNeill reported that you consider that because you have achieved abstinence you do not need ongoing treatment.  She said this suggests lack of insight, a common feature of addiction, but she considers you to be a good candidate for ongoing therapeutic treatment, because of the groundwork you have already done.

18On p9 of her report, Ms McNeill sets out the details of the type of treatment she recommends for you, adding that addiction is a chronic and lifelong condition that requires intense psychological intervention.  She thinks that over the past 17 months, your identity has undergone a transformation that is promising, with the risk of relapse being low.  The support from your parents is a strong protective factor and also from your employment with your brother.  You have plans for the future and you no longer see your previous drug-using associates.

19If you were to be sentenced to a further time in prison you would lose the momentum you have achieved in your recovery and you would not receive anything like the level of therapeutic treatment you have been able to benefit from while on bail. Ms McNeill considered that prison would be harmful to your mental health because of the lack of treatment.  I take that into account under the fifth limb of the decision in the case of Verdins v R[1].

[1] [2007] VSCA 102

20This analysis of your personal circumstances is to be weighed against the other sentencing requirements I must consider.  The trafficking of drugs causes enormous harm to the community, particularly amongst young people.  Your own is a case in point.  You were fortunate to have a supportive family and some personal resources such as your good intelligence, to foster your successful rehabilitation.  Not everyone who falls victim to the scourge of drugs has those benefits.

21Your early plea of guilty means you are entitled to a discount on your sentence as it has avoided a trial and saved considerable expense and inconvenience.  This is especially important now when the effects of the pandemic are still being felt, and the court faces a large backlog of cases.

22I also accept your plea as an indication of remorse, just as you have expressed that remorse to the professionals treating you.  Two family friends and the priest at your local church all speak well of you and confirm your demonstrated wish to change and to regain the trust of those close to you.

23The other effect of the pandemic has been to increase the hardship experienced by prisoners through restrictions to combat the risk of infection.  This has meant reduced time out of cells, severe restrictions on visits and the cancellation or limitation of programs.  Your imprisonment for nearly two months was during this time and should you be returned to prison some of those hardships would likely continue.  These are matters I take into account.

24The potential for harm caused by drug trafficking, means that the full force of the law should be reflected in the sentences imposed.  That is what is meant by general deterrence.  Of course, the personal circumstances of the offender might temper that severity.  You have already spent time in prison for these charges and have no previous convictions.  You have no tendency to offend other than in connection with drug addiction, and your prospects for rehabilitation appear to be very good, in that you have already demonstrated some insight into your need to change and your ability to do so.

25I note that the Corrections Officer who assessed you this week, considered that although you are embarrassed and ashamed of what you did, you showed little insight into the impact of your offending.  I assumed he meant that your insight is limited to your comprehension of the impact of drugs on you, yourself, not upon the community more broadly.  That will be addressed as part of the supervision component of the Community Correction Order.

26I was referred during the plea hearing to a number of sentences imposed by judges of this court, which are not precedents of course, but offer some guidance as to consistency of sentencing.  Three of those sentences were Community Correction Orders imposed for relatively similar offending, with offenders having not dissimilar backgrounds and problems with drugs to you, and with favourable prospects for rehabilitation.  The other two sentences were for short periods of time served in combination with a CCO with offenders in broadly similar circumstances as in this case.

27In order to treat like cases alike as far as possible, and in the interest of consistency and taking into account all the circumstances I have mentioned, I shall impose a short term of imprisonment to be reckoned as already served together with a Community Correction Order.

28In doing so, it will be apparent that the main focus of the sentence I shall impose will be twofold: the punishment inherent in a long Community Correction Order with unpaid community work, and the orders for treatment which will be conditions of that order.  You have been assessed as suitable for a Community Correction Order.

29Mr Papadopoulos, will you stand now please?

30I sentence you as follows.  For each of Charges 1 and 2, the trafficking charges, 53 days imprisonment and a three year Community Correction Order.

31For each of Charges 3 and 4, imprisonment for one month.

32I order that all the sentences are to be regarded as served concurrently with each other.  As I said before, you have spent 53 days in pre-sentence detention to be reckoned as already served and I shall note that on the court record.

33The Community Correction Order will commence today and will last for three years.  You will be under supervision and you must perform 200 hours of unpaid community work.  You must have treatment for the abuse of drugs and your mental health is to be monitored as part of the order.  This may mean that you will be able to continue with any counselling or other therapy that you are planning or already engaged in, and your case manager will be made aware of it.  Any hours you spend in treatment will be credited against the hours of unpaid community work.

34You must attend the Corrections Office at 703 Station Street, Box Hill by 4 pm on Monday, 19 September.  If you were to breach the Community Correction Order at any time in the next three years, you would have to return to court to be re-sentenced by me.

35If you had pleaded not guilty to these charges, I would have sentenced you to two years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 months.  Mr Papadopoulos, do you agree to be bound by the conditions of the Community Correction Order?

36OFFENDER:  Yes, Your Honour.

37

HER HONOUR:  Thank you.  Now the prosecution seeks an order for disposal of a list of items on a schedule that's attached.  Is there any objection to that

Mr Stathopoulos?

38MR STATHOPOULOS:  No objections, Your Honour.

39HER HONOUR:  Thank you, yes I make that order.  Are there any other matters?

40MR STATHOPOULOS:  No further matters from my end, Your Honour.

41Now Mr Stathopoulos would you like to accompany my associate to the dock for your client to sign the order?

42(Community Correction order signed)

43HER HONOUR:   Mr White, any other issues?

44MR WHITE:  Not from my end.

45HER HONOUR:  Thank you very much, all right.

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