Director of Public Prosecutions v Renouf

[2018] VCC 1285

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

AT SHEPPARTON
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-02169

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JOSHUA WILLIAM RENOUF

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	9 August 2018
DATE OF SENTENCE:	16 August 2018
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Renouf
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2018] VCC 1285

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr R. B. Hammill
For the Accused	In person

HIS HONOUR:

1Joshua William Renouf, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of burglary, one charge of theft, one charge of theft of firearms, one charge of handling stolen goods and one charge of obtaining financial advantage by deception.  Those crimes carry maximum penalties of ten years, ten years, fifteen years, fifteen years and ten years respectively.  You have for these purposes, no relevant prior convictions.  You have a couple of Children's Court matters for fighting.  You have none for dishonesty.  You pleaded guilty, though you had been messing the system about for quite a while now, because I think you have had your head in the sand and you have not quite come to terms with what you are facing.

2In any event, you get the benefit of that plea of guilty.  Whether there is any remorse in it, I do not know.  But certainly you get the utilitarian benefit of it, that is, saving the court the time of a trial and all those sorts of things.  You are still only in your very early twenties.  So you are still a boy in many respects.  The offending involves you, dealing with the matters I am really concerned with here, stealing from an employer a concrete saw and you, much more importantly, in April of 2017, attending with a Joshua Buevac, who was around about the same age as you, your former I am assuming employee's premises.  You obviously had knowledge of those premises.  The lock on the gate was cut and that is the burglary.

3From the first workshop, you took a set of keys that opened a further workshop.  In the second workshop, there were two metal gun safes.  Those safes were jemmied open and eleven firearms were removed from them.  In another workshop on the premises, there was an office area where there is a concrete polisher and other items taken and you then left the premises.  It does not really matter in which vehicles, having stolen a vehicle of the owner of those premises.  He was subsequently contacted and basically had to buy back or was blackmailed into buying back the eleven firearms for $3,300.

4Because of your age and your lack of prior convictions, for the matters involving theft and handling stolen goods, a short gaol sentence is ample.  The dangers of having eleven firearms, unregulated firearms, going into a community which is like most other rural communities in this state, wage in a war with that drug ice, is a very very dangerous proposition.

5General deterrence in this situation have to loom very large.  It is only your age that saves you in this circumstance.  Specific deterrence to you, I think seven days ought to be enough, but I have told you what I am going to do if you mess this up.  There also has to be denunciation and appropriate punishment.  As I have said, parity is really not an issue because even though there was similar ages with you and the co-accused, he was sentenced for far far more offending and did have that extended criminal history.

6We had you assessed for a community corrections order and they have found you suitable.  I do not need to go into your background or anything like that in this situation.  I am prepared to go along with the recommendations they have made.  I understand from them that you - your Koori background, I did not know that.  I do not know whether you are connected with the community or - no, all right.  So I will not take that any further.  However, as I said, it is based mainly on your youth and this should have been a very large wake up call for you.  I am prepared to sentence you as follows.  

7On the charges of theft, handle stolen goods and obtain financial advantage, an aggregate seven days.  I direct that that seven days be reckoned as having been served.  On the charges of burglary and theft of firearms, which carry a combined 25 years if you add it up, you are to be sentenced to seven days to be followed by a community corrections order, which is to last for two years, which will involve 200 hours of community work, which will involve supervision and treatment and rehabilitation for drug, alcohol and any other treatments that they deem necessary for you.

8As it may have been very very clear to you, if you mess this up, you are going to go to gaol for an extended period of time.  You are now twenty-one so you do not get YTC and if you do end up - me giving you a year or something like that for further offending of this nature, you will have only yourself to blame.

9I think that you have got good support and you have just got to pull your head in Mr Renouf.  Prospects of you rehabilitating are up to you.  You are still very young.  The risk of you reoffending is described as moderate in the report and I accept that that is probably the case.  I think that so far as specific and general community benefit is concerned, a community corrections order, if it works, is the appropriate disposition here and if it does not, in you go, all right?  No other orders I have to make?

10MR HAMMILL:  No, Your Honour.

11HIS HONOUR:  Sorry, 464 ‑ ‑ ‑

12MR HAMMILL:  Other than the ‑ ‑ ‑ 

13HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

14MR HAMMILL:  Yes.

15HIS HONOUR:  I have told you I have done that.  If you do not turn up within 28 days and do it, police can use reasonable force to get a sample from you, all right?  Now what happens is I will declare the seven days served, but you will need to go back to get processed.  You have got no other warrants or anything out on you?  No, all right.

16So you will go back and get processed at the station and then you will be released from there, all right?  Yes, you can get him to sign the community corrections order, sorry.  It will be with conviction obviously.

17MR HAMMILL:  Yes.  Thank you, Your Honour.

18HIS HONOUR:  I was tempted Mr Hammill just to defer sentencing for a while, but they have got - without a lawyer, I have got nothing I can negotiate with.

19MR HAMMILL:  The future is spelt out fairly clearly.

20HIS HONOUR:  All right, there is no - I can do it too.  All right, that order is made.  All right, you know what is going to happen if you mess it up.  So you can take him down, they will let you go pretty soon.

21TIPSTAFF:  No, he has got to get a copy of that.

22HIS HONOUR:  I have got to give him a copy before he goes?

23TIPSTAFF:  Yes.

24HIS HONOUR:  Very well.  You can give it to his mum if you want.

25TIPSTAFF:  Yes, all right.

26HIS HONOUR:  Give it to his mum.

27TIPSTAFF:  Yes, give it to his mum?

28HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

29TIPSTAFF:  All right.

30HIS HONOUR:  Very well.  Yes, you can go guys, thank you.

31TIPSTAFF:  Can the mother stay for the moment?

32HIS HONOUR:  Very well, yes.  Can I just make it clear to you, just while the door shuts.  If during the course of the community corrections order, all right, things start to go astray or whatever, you can always get the Corrections people to bring the community corrections order back before me, all right?  Do not let it get to a situation where it cannot be fixed, if something does go wrong.  I do not want him to hear this, but if something does start to go wrong, or you think he is using or you are worried or something like that, you can always get Corrections to bring it back before me, all right?

33I have not put a judicial monitoring on it, but if something is going wrong, we can try and fix it.  Now I have made it clear to him what is going to happen if he thieves, but I cannot do much about that.  But other aspects of his life, you can always get it brought back and we can try and work something out, all right?

34MOTHER:  Okay.

35HIS HONOUR:  Very well, thank you for that. 

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