Director of Public Prosecutions v Parker
[2015] VCC 982
•13 March 2015
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-14-00214
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| TERRENCE PARKER |
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JUDGE: | Her Honour Judge Gaynor | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | ||
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 13 March 2015 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Parker | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2015] VCC 982 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director | Mr J. Singh | |
| of Public Prosecutions | ||
| For the Accused | Mr S. Anger |
HER HONOUR:
1 Terrence Parker, a jury has found you guilty of one charge of possessing substances, materials, documents or equipment for the purpose of trafficking in a drug of dependence and two charges of possessing a drug of dependence. You have also pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing a firearm whilst being a prohibited person.
2 The facts underlying your offending are as follows: On 13 March 2013, police attended a factory at 4/2 Colrado Court, Hallam, where you were seen talking to some people, including another person Paul Muzarad, who was eventually charged also with charge 1 on the indictment, which was the subject of the jury trial. Police located a set of keys on you and went into the factory, which showed living arrangements, including two bedrooms and a room which had clearly been dedicated to use as a clandestine drug making laboratory. A large amount of documentation, equipment and chemicals were removed from the premises, and evidence was led on the trial that it was clear that this clandestine laboratory had been set up for the purpose of making methylamphetamine.
3 Also located in the room where the clandestine laboratory was located were some documents which related to an article entitled, "Secrets of Methylamphetamine Manufacture," your fingerprints being found a page of those documents. A USB was found in a carton in the bedroom which you said was used by you which later was found to also contain an article related to methylamphetamine manufacture.
4 Whilst the search was in underway, in a common area of the factory were found some firearm parts which were unassembled and which, once assembled, would have resulted in an inoperational firearm. At the time of your arrest on these matters, you were the subject of an intervention order and, as such, were a prohibited person insofar as possession of firearms is concerned. In a record of interview with police, you admitted living at the premises, but denied any knowledge of the clandestine laboratory or the firearms.
5 The background scenario, insofar as the factory is concerned, is that it was leased by a friend of yours, Glenn Krepp, from which he was hoping to use it to run a fencing company business. It seemed, from the evidence of the factory owner, Steven Ambrose, that you were involved in checking out the factory and you told Mr Ambrose you would be the manager for Mr Krepp. It also seems that you were running a resurfacing spray business, which you also ran from the factory and had agreed with Krepp that you would pay half the rent. Krepp's stepfather apparently became extremely ill and his business suffered, so he got in two mates from the footy club, according to Mr Krepp, Jezza and Smithy, and they were also living at the factory at the time that police searched and made the discoveries that they did.
6 I now turn to your personal circumstances. You are 42 and were 40 at the time of the offending. You are the youngest of three children and grew up in Fountain Gate. Your father was a draughtsman and you have always had a poor relationship with him, he being a violent and bullying man. You have an older brother and sister who have never been in trouble with police. You completed Year 12 at Hallam High School, began working for Quarry Quip Engineering, where you remained for four years. You then became a grocery manager, rising to second in charge, at an IGA supermarket, which position you held for two and a half years, and then that was bought out by Coles and you remained there for a further three years, in that time, undergoing three promotions, ultimately getting to the point of Operations Manager. You left that job after a relationship breakdown and were unemployed for four years. You then began a business called Resurfacing, Spray and Seal, which business you ran for a number of years and were operating at the time of your arrest. I'm satisfied that you do have a solid work history.
7 You have a problematic relationship history. You have had four relationships, each lasting for about two years until you were then 29. You were then in a relationship with a woman named Tracey Cote which went on for a number of years. You had plans to marry but she left you for another man, and you found this an extremely traumatising experience. You then had another short term relationship, and then finally were in a relationship with a woman named Jade Moore which was turbulent. You had separated around the time of this offending and she had taken an intervention order out against you. It appears that you had resorted to living at the factory because of your relationship breakdown with Ms Moore.
8 You have a number of prior criminal court appearances. You appeared three times between 1996 and 1998 on drug charges. In 1998, you were fined for handling stolen goods and, in 2000 and 2003, you were dealt with for assaults. In 2006, you were sentenced by Judge Douglas of this court to a total effective sentence of 27 months with a 14 month minimum for cultivating marijuana in a commercial quantity. You were also charged with being a person in possession of a prohibited weapon. It appears that at this stage you were in the relationship with Ms Cote. The offending, it seems, looking at the history, related to a raid on the premises in 2004.
9 Ultimately, in about 2011, you were assessed by a psychologist, Aaron Cunningham, as having suffered anxiety and depression for some years. What is interesting in that report is that you deny ever having used any drugs of significance, but it would seem that around this time, you were using marijuana, both as a means of self-medicating in terms of the psychological difficulties you were having, but clearly growing more than you could have had for your personal use, possibly as a way of funding your habit. In 2007, you were also dealt with for possessing the proceeds of crimes and possessing a prohibited weapon, which your counsel told me was a crossbow, the proceeds of crime, apparently being tools which were seized when you were arrested in 2004.
10 On your release, you established the resurfacing and spray painting business, which was successful. In 2011, you were again dealt with in the County Court, this time for cultivating cannabis, and were sentenced by His Honour Judge Montgomery of this court in 2013. It was at that time that Mr Aaron Cunningham diagnosed you as suffering a long term anxiety and depression condition, specifically, at that time, in response to the relationship you were then in, but it appears to have been you've been suffering these conditions for some years. Dr Cunningham's report wrote that he had spoken to your sister, with whom you had been living as well, and she reported that you had a methylamphetamine, as well as cannabis, habit, which was causing you some damage; however, you denied that to Dr Cunningham, and your counsel's instructions to me on this plea were that those denials continued. That report was also tendered on this plea.
11 His Honour sentenced you to a term of two years' imprisonment with a minimum term of one year, which sentence was imposed on 3 July 2013, and you have remained in prison since that time. As a result of being charged with those offences, you were evicted from your premises at Harkaway. As I said, you suffered relationship breakdowns and you ended up living at the factory.
12 As I've also said, at the time of your arrest, another man, Paul Muzarad, was also arrested at the premises and charged with the equivalent of charge 1 on the indictment which was the subject of the jury trial. His prints were found on glassware in the clandestine laboratory. He also pleaded guilty, but was dealt with in the Magistrates' Court, and sentenced to four months' imprisonment, which sentence was wholly suspended.
13 Apparently, there were large numbers of people, it seems to have been conceded by police, coming and going from this factory at the time. Jezza and Smithy left details which ultimately proved to be false and have managed to disappear from the scene. It would seem that they were probably involved with this whole enterprise and you had no control over it. It could not be ascertained precisely what role you had in the laboratory.
14 The plea for the firearms charge was made on the basis that parts were located in a common area, and it is conceded by the prosecution that they could not be assembled to make an operable firearm without the addition of other parts found elsewhere in the factory, which are not the subject of any charge faced by you.
15 Whilst in gaol, you have weaned yourself off marijuana. You were denied parole because of these charges and I agree the principle of totality has application in the sentencing exercise before me. You were supported by friends on the plea. I received a written reference from Anthony O'Connell, who spoke highly of your personal and professional attributes. You plan to go and live with a friend in Wandin on your release, and aim to start up your business again.
16 Parity also has some part to play in the exercise before me, that is, parity of sentencing with Mr Muzarad, although he did plead guilty and was dealt with in the Magistrates' Court. You also have significant relevant priors, although of a different character – that is, this is the third time you have appeared before the County Court on drug-related charges.
17 I am prepared to find that you have reasonable prospects of rehabilitation. You have a solid work history. I cannot determine you had any particularly significant role in the clandestine laboratory and the firearms charge, in my view, falls very much at the lower end of the scale. In taking into account the punitive and rehabilitative aspects of the sentencing exercise before me, I am prepared to impose a sentence that is partially suspended, and I am going to sentence you as follows. Stand up, please, sir.
18 On charge 1 on the indictment, I am sentencing you to 12 months' imprisonment, and on charge 2, I am sentencing you to one month, which will be served concurrently. I order that you serve three months of this sentence and I order that nine months of this sentence be wholly suspended for a period of 18 months. What that means is this, Mr Parker, I declare that 62 days of this sentence has already been served by way of pre-sentence detention, so you have got a little less than a month to go.
19 HER HONOUR: Understand that you are on a knife's edge in the next 18 months. The legislation says if you commit an offence punishable by imprisonment in the next 18 months, you will be brought back before me on a breach of suspended sentence and I will remember who you are, Mr Parker, have no fears on that head. The legislation that unless there are exceptional circumstances surrounding your offending – what that means is that you virtually have to be offending in order to save the Western world from nuclear war. Have you got it? I must make you serve the unexpired portion, so you're going to have nine months hanging over your head for the next 18 months, and I don't think that's going to be a bad thing for you.
20 I noted that Judge Montgomery, in his sentencing remarks, said to you that it was time that you confined your activities to legitimate ones and I agree with that. I understand the defence you were seeking to run, which didn't get off the ground for various reasons, because there was no evidence of it without you giving evidence of it, but I understand you're saying you were living in a chaotic situation and you had no control of what was going on in the factory. It may well be that you knew about it but there wasn't much you could do about because of your personal circumstances.
21 That defence didn't get up and I don't know – I'm making no assessment on whether it's true or not true, but I'm simply saying to you – speaking to you in this way: even if it is true, you are too old to be in that sort of messy situation. Far too old. You're not some sort of disorganised 21 year old bloke who finds himself living in a house of drug dealers and doesn't know how to get out of it. You're clearly very competent at what you do. You've run a good business for many years. You're not very competent at relationships and I had some discussion with you last time you appeared before me, and that seems to get in the way of everything and blur your judgment.
22 You got yourself into a very serious situation. You have been sitting in gaol for coming up to two years now and, really, you strike me as an intelligent person and a person who knows how to work, and I do not understand why you keep coming back to court. You need to make some sensible decisions about your life. You're going to have to be very sensible about your life in the next 18 months. If you put a toenail out of line, you get caught smoking a joint and you're back here in front of me and you'll go back in for another nine months. I'm sure you're sick to death of gaol by now.
23 OFFENDER: Yes, Your Honour.
24 HER HONOUR: Yes, all right. You can have a seat. That's my sentence. That's an aggregate – when I say the 12 months, that relates to charges 1, 2 and 3. I forgot to add that on their search, police also located an amount of methylamphetamine in the clandestine laboratory and an amount in the common lounge room. Yes?
25 MR SINGH: Your Honour, in relation to the handgun charge, which was a plea, 6RRR?
26 HER HONOUR: I know. I was hoping I could sneak out of that. Pursuant to 6RRR, I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, I would have sentenced you to a term of three months' imprisonment.
27 MR ANGER: There's a sentence in relation to charges 1, 2 and 3.
28 HER HONOUR: It's an aggregate sentence.
29 MR ANGER: And the handgun ‑ ‑ ‑
30 HER HONOUR: One month, concurrent. 12 months all up.
31 MR ANGER: As Your Honour please.
32 MR SINGH: Thank you, Your Honour.
33 HER HONOUR: Nine months of that is suspended for a period of 18 months. All right? Thank you, we will stand down until 10.30. Again, I thank counsel for their assistance in this matter.
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