Director of Public Prosecutions v Petrovic (a pseudonym)

[2025] VCC 823

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

DONOVAN PETROVIC (A PSEUDONYM)

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE DAVIS
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	6 June 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	24 June 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Petrovic (a pseudonym)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 823

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords:              Plea of guilty – Assisting offender (1 charge) – Handling stolen goods (2 charges)

Legislation Cited:      Crimes Act 1958; Sentencing Act 1991

Sentence:                  Total effective sentence of 56 days’ imprisonment

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the DPP	Mr T Crouch	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms N Giorgianni	Giorgianni & Liang Lawyers

HER HONOUR:

1Donovan Petrovic, you have pleaded guilty on Indictment C2316125.2 to one charge of assisting an offender to commit theft (charge 3) contrary to section 325 of the Crimes Act 1958 and to two charges of handling stolen goods (charges 11 & 12) contrary to section 88(1) the Crimes Act 1958. The maximum penalty for charge 3 is 5 years’ imprisonment. Charges 11 and 12 each carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.

Circumstances of offending

2Charge 3 concerns your conduct on 28 February 2023, when you assisted your co-accused on that indictment, Mark Orlov (a pseudonym), by speaking to him on your mobile phone before driving a Ford Falcon to the location where Mr Orlov had brought a stolen caravan, entering the caravan, then exiting it and driving away in the Ford Falcon, and then speaking to Mr Orlov again.

3Charge 11 concerns the items found at your home on 15 March 2023 when police executed a search warrant for unrelated matters. Police located several identification documents in the names of other people, including: a Victorian Drivers’ Licence in the name of Huseyin Celik; a bank card in the name of Jack Webster, and a Medicare card in the name of Jeremy Webb.

4Charge 12 concerns stolen items found in your home in Mickleham on 12 April 2023: three red and black camping chairs, and one portable charcoal barbeque. The camping chairs were in the caravan stolen by Mr Orlov on 20 February 2023.

Pre-sentence detention and resolution

5On 7 April 2023 you were interviewed by police and remanded into custody, where you spent 56 days before being granted bail. You are currently on remand in relation to other matters to be heard at a plea in the Magistrates’ Court in July this year. You suffer from cardiomyopathy and were in hospital during the committal hearing on 30 October 2023. Thereafter, the Crown was ordered to file an Indictment and Opening but did not file the Opening until 4 October 2024. The Defence Response was filed around 22 October 2024. The matter resolved soon after this date and you were arraigned on 15 November 2024. 

Personal circumstances

6Your personal circumstances were set out in the psychological report of Warren Simmons dated 24 January 2025. You are 39 years old and had a disruptive and abusive childhood at the hands of your father. You were sexually abused by a teacher at the age of 9. You left school after Year 10 and commenced a motor mechanic apprenticeship which you completed at a number of different workplaces. You started abusing drugs at the age of 19 and have had difficulty maintaining abstinence when in the community. You have only a limited employment history because of your extensive criminal history of violence, dishonesty, drug and driving offences, for which you have frequently served terms of imprisonment. Much of your offending has been associated with your drug addiction. Your long-term relationship with your partner broke down after your last term in prison.

7You were diagnosed with depression in 2011 whilst in custody and had symptoms of PTSD when assessed by Mr Simmons. You were diagnosed with cardiomyopathy (a condition shared by your sister, who died from it) and have very poor heart function requiring weekly attendance by a cardiologist. You also suffer from very low blood pressure causing frequent fainting. You have undertaken prison based drug programs in the past but have not managed to maintain abstinence in the community. You acknowledge the need to undergo an intensive program to address your substance abuse, but have in the past been refused entry into residential rehabilitation programs because of your history of violence.

Submissions

8Your counsel submitted that your offending falls at the lower end of the scale of seriousness and emphasised the rehabilitation program you have undertaken in jail. While on remand, you have completed the ‘Ice and Me’ program and the Atlas program.

9It was common ground that: your offending was at a much lower level than that of your co-accused, and at a low level of seriousness; that there has been delay in the finalisation of this case; that your plea should be taken to have been made at an early stage, and is consistent with your demonstrating remorse for your actions and has utilitarian value in sparing the need for a trial; that your medical condition makes prison more onerous for you than for other prisoners; and that because you are currently on remand the imposition of a Community Corrections Order is not a practicable disposition.

Sentencing considerations

10I consider that your offending is of a street level nature, that is, of a low level of seriousness. I accept all the matters relied upon in mitigation by your counsel, most of which were conceded by the Crown.

11In all of the circumstances of this case, I consider that the appropriate disposition is one of the imposition of a straight, aggregate sentence of imprisonment.

Sentence

12Donovan Petrovic, on charges 3, 11 and 12, you are sentenced to an aggregate term of imprisonment of 56 days.

13I declare that there are 56 days of pre-sentence detention, not including today, which are to be deducted administratively from this sentence.

14Under section 6AAA of Sentencing Act 1991, I indicate that, but for your plea of guilty, I would have imposed a total effective sentence of 6 months’ imprisonment.