Director of Public Prosecutions v Richards

[2022] VCC 440

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-21-01948

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

INDIANA RICHARDS

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE GAYNOR
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	4 March 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Richards
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 440

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Catchwords:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Plaintiff
For the Defendant

HER HONOUR:

1       

Indiana Richards, you have pleaded guilty before me to one charge of burglary, one charge of theft, one charge of armed robbery, one charge of theft of motor vehicle, two charges of damaging property and

one charge of arson.  The facts underlying your offending are as follows:

2       

On Friday, 23 March 2021, at about quarter to four in the morning, you and two associates were seen on CCTV footage walking past the

Nissan dealership located at 605 High Street, Preston.  You stopped to look at a white utility before continuing on Spencer Street towards

High Street and spending time at the Preston Hotel.

3       

At about 4.52 am you returned to the Nissan dealership where you went into the carpark and gained access to an unlocked white utility.  You rummaged through the car and then continued into the

dealership proper, forcing entry to the main door of the service and

parts office by unknown means and began searching the premises there for car keys and other items of value.  These actions underlie Charge 1

on the indictment, burglary.

4       At about 6.15 am the victim arrived at the Nissan dealership to start work and saw that the front door of the service centre office was ajar and that lights had been left on.  On entering the office he saw that it seemed to have been ransacked, noticing items scattered all over the floor.  He continued into the service centre workshop where he found you standing in the centre of the workshop wearing a surgical mask, a hood over your head and holding a pair of garden sheers, which the victim recognised as belonging to the dealership.

5       

You ran at the victim and demanded he hand over his phone and raised the garden sheers blade first towards him.  The victim refused to hand over his phone and you pulled out a five inch green handled kitchen knife

from the front of your waistband and motioned it in a stabbing motion

towards him, while continuing to demand his phone.  The victim eventually handed over his phone out of fear of injury and you then asked him what else he had.  The victim said, “nothing” and you felt through his pockets and took his car keys.  You then pushed him to the ground and ran off towards the service centre office.  Those actions underlie Charge 3 on the indictment, armed robbery.

6       

The victim followed you through the service centre office and out to the carpark, pleading for the return of his belongings.  You initially refusing, saying, 'If I give you back your phone you'll call police'.  Eventually, however, you returned the phone and keys before using another set of

stolen keys to access a white Nissan X-Trail, parked out the front of the

service centre office.  The victim ran over to the side entrance of the carpark and put up a bollard in effort to stop you leaving the dealership with the X-Trail before running from the dealership and calling a colleague to report the incident.  The colleague notified the

general sales manager, who contacted police.  Meanwhile, you drove the X-Trail through a garage door into the service centre workshop and through a second garage door in order to get out of the

dealership building, causing damage to both the garage doors and the front of the X-Trail.  These actions underlie Charge 5, theft of

motor vehicle and Charge 6, criminal damage.

7       

At about 7.00 am the general sales manager Doug Pletacarpa, arrived at the dealership to help police in identifying property that had been stolen or damaged during the incident and in addition to the stolen

X-Trail and damaged garage doors, an inventory demonstrated that customer contracts, spare keys and registration plates belonging to various people had been stolen.  These actions underlie Charge 2 on the indictment, theft.

8       

Various other keys, including the keys to the X-Trail had also been stolen from the service centre key safe.  These actions also underlie Charge 2

on the indictment, theft.

9       The sun-roof of a red 2008 Toyota Camry sedan had been smashed in.  That action underlies Charge 4 on the indictment of criminal damage.

10      A search of the dealership located items discarded in the stairwell, including the five inch kitchen knife and a set of red bolt cutters, which had been moved from the workshop.  There also appeared to have been tampering to the dealership's meter box.  Your DNA was located on the kitchen knife.

11      On 24 April 2021 at about 4.15 pm, you went to the Red Rooster located in the Hume Highway in Campbellfield driving the stolen X-Trail with the co-accused, Max Brunton, in the passenger seat.  The X-Trail was bearing a set of number plates stolen by you from the dealership.  You drove through the drive thru and ordered food paying in cash and whilst there, opened the driver's side door while no one was looking and used a permanent marker to tag ENC on the drive thru window.  You then parked the X-Trail on the nature strip outside Red Rooster and went to the counter to obtain an item missing from your order before returning outside and there you and your co-accused Brunton set fire to the X-Trail and left on foot.  Those actions underlie Charge 7 on the indictment, arson.

12      

Emergency services arrived and put out the fire.  Eventually, police seized certain items from the burnt-out vehicle, which included packaging for a trade flame industrial jet lighter, which was located on the rear driver's seat and a jerry can, which was located in the rear driver's foot well.  One of your fingerprints was located on the

jet lighter packaging.  The X-Trail was valued at $32,877.19.

13      Ultimately, as a result of significant investigation undertaken by police to locate you, various contacts of yours were contacted by police and they agreed to facilitate with you.  On 6 April 2021, you called police from an associate's phone and spoke to the informant, during which conversation you admitted stealing the X-Trail and telling her that you had disposed of the stolen number plates and contracts in a bin in Greensborough.  You told police that you had organised an arrest by appointment with another police member.

14      

On 11 May 2021 at 4.10 pm, after several failures to attend as arranged, you went to the Boroondara Police Station, where you were placed under arrest and underwent a record of interview.  Essentially, you exercised a right to answer no comment to the allegations but in the course of that record of interview you did tell police that at the time you had no place of address.  You denied recalling making admissions to the informant on the phone about stealing the X-Trail.  You said you had never been to the Nissan dealership in Preston.  You said you had probably been to the Preston Hotel if it was a pokie venue.  You, in relation to the

graffiti tag ENC at Red Rooster, said you would not even know what that means and that you did not write graffiti and when shown a photo of the X-Trail, said you had never seen the vehicle before.  You were subsequently charged and remanded into custody where you have remained ever since.

15      

The maximum penalty for burglary is 10 years imprisonment or

1200 penalty units.  The maximum penalty for theft and theft of motor vehicle is 10 years imprisonment of 1200 penalty units.  The maximum penalty for armed robbery is 25 years imprisonment of

3000 penalty units.  The maximum penalty for criminal damage is

10 years imprisonment of 1200 penalty units.  And the maximum penalty for arson is 15 years imprisonment or 1800 penalty units.

16      

I received a victim impact statement from the victim

Reganmak Irasaya Nasim.  He stated that the emotional impact of the crime, of your offending on him had been very significant.  He had trouble sleeping for a couple of weeks and he has been left with a feeling of fear and nervousness to the point that he had to stop working for a while.  He lost interest in work and the crime, he said, placed considerable stress on him and caused his family to worry, which stressed him further.  He stated, 'I feel like the crime has instilled a fear within me that I did not previously have'.  He said it also caused him to have an overall lack of energy and enthusiasm for life, made him feel physically weak and his level of motivation to engage in leisure activities very much decreased.  He stated that he lost money because he had to stop working.  Then it took him two months to get back to work and he had to find a new job.  The offending has also impacted on his capacity to engage in social activities and he has what he called a disrupted sense of personal safety within the community.

17      It is important that you hear those effects, Mr Richards.  I understand and I will be commenting later upon the state you had got yourself into at the time of committing this offending.  I understand that you were using drugs to an extraordinary degree and I understand that your history, which I will detail, involves many, many years of using drugs, almost to a point where I am satisfied it was totally dominating your life.

18      Nevertheless, you need to understand that your offending is not just something which involves going in and stealing items.  You very much impact other human beings and it is really important that you understand that what you did directly affected that person from whom you stole items whilst holding him up with garden shears and a knife.  He has ongoing psychological distress.  He had to give up work.  He lost money.  He was doing nothing.

19      It is really important that people who commit crimes such as this, particularly people who are doing it in the grip of drug addiction, understand they do damage.  They do damage to other human beings who have never done anything to them.  That man simply went to work.  He went through a terrifying experience and he continues to suffer from the emotional impact to this day.  Do you understand that?

20      It is really important because as you know, application has been made to place you on a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order and part of the motivation, hopefully, to keep you on that order is that the drug abuse you have engaged in for so many years has caused a great deal of damage to people who have done nothing to earn it.  And that one of the side effects, if you like (and it is a serious side effect), of using drugs to the point when all that matters is satisfaction of your own drug dependence, is that you will commit acts which cause severe harm to other people.  And you will continue doing that whilst you continue to engage in the sort of drug abuse that you did.

21      I am now going to turn to your personal circumstances.  You are now 27.  You were 26 at the time of this offending.  Your parents separated when you were born.  You have met your biological father only once.  He was apparently violent and a drug user and your mother left him for those reasons.  When you were four she re-partnered and still remains with that partner.  You have regarded your step-father essentially as your father.  He, himself, had two sons who are your step-brothers.  You have a good relationship with them.

22      

You were diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder when you were young and this very much interfered with

your education.  You were disruptive in class.  You attended three primary schools.  You started secondary school at Montmorency Secondary but you were asked to leave in Year 9 because of disruptive behaviour.  You then attended the Northland Secondary College until

Year 10, when you left to undertake a pre-apprenticeship in carpentry.  You apparently prefer hands-on work rather than being told what to do and dislike study.

23      I received a neuro-psychological report, which in my view indicates you may have what is called an audio retention difficulty, which is where your brain has trouble taken in spoken information and you respond much better to information which is demonstrated to you.

24      

Now, your main difficulty has been that by the age of 15, due to the peer group you were mixing with, you were regularly using cannabis, MDMA, speed, ice and GHB and abusing prescription drugs.  By the age of 17

you were using ice and GHB daily and regularly smoking cannabis.  Along the way you have also abused alcohol and it would appear that you have developed over the years a gambling problem as well.

25      You worked as a carpentry apprenticeship for a while,  then worked as a baker's apprentice but were unable to continue with those apprenticeships essentially because you could not earn enough money to support your drug habit, which had become serious and expensive.  At its height you told a psychologist, Alison Mynard, whose report was tendered on the plea, it was costing you thousands of dollars a week.

26      

Along the way, obviously, you began offending.  Since 2017 courts have dealt with you for criminal damage, recklessly cause injury, possession of, use of cannabis, ice, ecstasy and GHB.  You have been dealt with for burglary theft, motor car theft, driving whilst disqualified, resist police, handling stolen goods, shoplift, obtaining property by deception.  You have been placed on a

community corrections order, which you were on at the time of this offending, which of course has now been breached.

27      

You were first gaoled in August 2019, receiving five months on charges including burglary theft, possessing GHB and driving offences.  In October 2019, you were sentenced to 12 months imprisonment with a

six month minimum for drug offences, theft of motor vehicle,

attempted theft of motor vehicle, burglary theft, shop lifting and possession of GHB.  On 16 September 2020, you received 42 days

imprisonment for motor car theft, possession of GHB, handling

stolen goods and shoplift.  And finally, on 7 December 2021, you were sentenced to 70 days imprisonment on charges of recklessly causing injury, being unlawfully on premises, unlawful assault, obtaining property by deception, theft, criminal damage, burglary and driving offences.

28      

Your drug habit has became so bad that over the years, you told

Ms Mynard, you have really only ever been abstinent or not used when you have been in custody and usually relapse virtually on the day that you are released from gaol.

29      You have overdosed on GHB on many occasions.  GHB, of course, is an extremely dangerous drug because the capacity to overdose is so high.  On one occasion you were hospitalised and almost died.

30      In your early twenties you did work in a container yard in logistics but injured yourself during a burglary when you snapped your ACL.  You also broke an ankle at a skate park.  You underwent surgery.  You were confined to home and your drug use increased because you were bored.

31      In recent years you have done odd labouring jobs for friends and been on Centrelink.  Your last job involved installing fencing and you believe you may have work there on your release from custody.

32      

At the time of this offending you were homeless and using drugs so heavily that you developed psychosis in the forms of

auditory hallucination,  that is voices, and you also developed severe paranoia.  Indeed, one of the reasons that you were engaged in stealing a car was that you felt safest in a car because of the small space involved and the feeling that no one could get at you because of the paranoia you were experiencing directly because of your drug use.

33      Do you understand how serious this is for you, personally, Mr Richards?

34      So, this is the other problem that you have.  You are developing psychiatric side effects from drug use.  Now, it appears not to be permanent.  You are not currently in the grip of auditory hallucinations.  But I can tell you this.  The drugs you use alter the structure of your brain.  Are you hearing me?

35      

If you go back to using them that will keep happening until it becomes permanent.  You will have auditory hallucinations all the time.  In effect, you will have got yourself into drug induced schizophrenia.  Now, you would have seen blokes in gaol with this.  You have, haven't you?  They wander around mumbling to themselves all the time.  That is not yet you.  But it could be you because you have used so much.  As I have said, you have used so much, what is called stimulant drugs, that actually interfere with what is called the synapses of your brain and the neural pathways, that if you keep doing that you are going to do

permanent damage to your brain and you are going to be a psychiatrically unwell person for the rest of your life and you are only

27 now.  You still got a long time to live.

36      Now, I know this is all sounding very heavy, Mr Richards but it is really important you understand what you are doing to other people and most importantly what you are doing to yourself.  And as I said, the fact that you have developed psychosis, auditory hallucinations and paranoia is a direct result of your drug use.

37      Now, I know you have been in gaol for a while and you settled down well there but because of COVID you haven't had access to the sorts of programs that give you that fundamental education about what these drugs do to you.  That is why I am taking this time to really spell out how seriously these drugs are affecting you in every way. 

38      

It was the view of psychologist, Alison Mynard, whose

report dated 8/11/2021 was tendered on the plea that your judgment was

severely impaired at the time of the offending that is before this court due to alcohol intoxication, drug use and your severe psychosis arising from stimulant use disorder.

39      

On your previous release from gaol, in the time that you were in the community leading up to this offending, you told Ms Mynard you had resumed a relationship with a partner, who was also a drug abuser and you had relapsed once more into sustained and severe drug use.  In fact, when you were released from custody and placed on the

community corrections order you returned home to live with your mother for two weeks.  But then you moved out to live with this former partner and the drug use by the two of you, in fact, became so severe that apparently both of you became concerned about it and split up.  However, you continued to use.

40      

Ms Mynard diagnosed you as suffering ADHD, persistent depression disorder, which also comes with long-term ice and ice use in particular,  a generalised anxiety disorder, drug induced psychosis and

stimulant use disorder.  That is, use of ice and GHB.

41      As I have said, on release from gaol in October 2020, you went to live with your mother.  That is when you got your fencing job on Gumtree and for a while you returned negative urine screens and you attended your CCO appointments until January 2021, when you just dropped away.

42      

As I have said, you reconnected with your old girlfriend.  You moved in with her between November 2020 and February 2021, when you relapsed back into drug use.  You separated because of the level of your combined drug use but you kept using and you overdosed on GHB in

April 2021.  Your psychosis heightened. You escaped from hospital with no clothes and tubing still attached.  This is the level of disorder you got to.  At the time you were, in fact, under arrest in hospital but you escaped and began offending and it was in that context that this current offending occurred and this current offending is an escalation, Mr Richards.  You have never appeared before the

County Court before, have you?  The level of offending has gone up.

43      You told Ms Mynard that you were completely out of your mind at the time and you did not know what you were doing and that your main mission was to steal cars because this was where you felt the safest place to be.

44      

As I said, you were using drugs daily.  You were injecting and at one stage you told Ms Mynard you actually stopped eating for about

20 days.  You were finally arrested and placed in gaol and there, unsurprisingly given your psychosis, you actually felt safe and in my view, you have done well in gaol since being placed in since May 11.

45      

I was made aware of a number of incidents that took place where you verbally abused staff.  In fact, you were moved from Barwon to

Port Phillip where you are now being held.  On

one occasion you were also caught using a banned substance.

46      However, overall, you have settled down and are now a billet which is a position of trust.  You have not used and you have reconnected with your mother, who I note is supportive and has come to court today to support you.

47      

Ms Mynard wrote that she believed that you have suffered from the conditions she diagnosed for a number of years.  Now, an application has been made to place you on a Drug and Alcohol Treatment Order. 

Ms Mynard wrote at paragraph 50, 'In the writer's opinion a Drug Court

order would be extremely helpful for Mr Richards to assist him with ongoing support, increasing insight and long-term rehabilitation options.'  I should add that in all of this time you have never engaged in meaningful

drug rehabilitation programs.

48      You have been placed on a CCO where you were supposed to do that but did not engage in it.  She goes on, 'All his offending appears to be related to his ongoing drug addiction that has been present for over 10 years.  It is concerning that he seems to be the type of person who now struggles to find positive interest or pleasure in activities because of his long-term ice and GHB addiction that has depleted these dopamine non-adrenaline and serotonin stores in his brain.'

49      What she is saying there is when you use ice, it taps in directly to your serotonin and dopamine supplies and actually depletes them.  So, that when you are not using life is much flatter and have you noticed that yourself?  She states, 'At the time of the offending Mr Richards continued to suffer from ADHD, anxiety, psychosis and addiction to ice and GHB.  These conditions have been present for years and Mr Richard has not invested in treatment for these conditions yet.'  She said that she believed your ADHD was permanent but may improve as you get older, so forth.

50      

Again, she states, 'During the period of offending, Mr Richards had been confused, lacking judgment, unable to reason clearly, highly anxious and paranoid, delusional and chaotic in his mind and behaviour.  These issues contributed significantly to his decision-making to commit the offending.  Stealing cars was particularly pertinent to Mr Richards

because he felt safe in a small contained environment in a car because he couldn't trust anyone.  Then when he arrived in prison at Barwon in his cell this feeling of safety was confirmed by him there'.

51      

So, ironically and it is not meant to be this way, gaol has actually been good for you.  Number one, you arrived in a paranoid state, which you told Ms Mynard stayed for about a month, along with the psychosis.  But you were in a small confined area and you had a strong structure around you and that has assisted you.  It was Ms Mynard's opinion that your

risk of recidivism is moderate to high.  She stated, 'This risk may be reduced when his addiction issues are addressed, along with his

mental health issues treated and stabilised.  It seems that Mr Richards

has been stuck in a cycle of drug addiction, poor mental health and transience, where he has been using drugs to reduce his anxiety and ADHD symptoms.  However, this drug use has in fact, exacerbated,'

that is made worse, 'His psychosis and anxiety'.

52      Now, I know this is hard to listen to, Mr Richards.  I can see you getting, you know, agitated in the dock but it is just really important you understand all this.  Because the DATO order which I am going to place you on is designed specifically to help you.  And whilst you may find bits of it difficult to undertake there is nothing but good for you in this order on every level.  Have you got that?  One of the great advantages you have is you have got a supportive and stable family and - and I am going to refer to the neuro-psychological report in a moment - you know you have got strength.  You also have got actual skills.

53      

It is quite clear from the neuro-psychological report that you have strengths in what is called visual memory.  That is, if you are shown what to do you do not have much trouble doing it.  You have actually got some education.  You have done a pre-apprenticeship course.  You have actually done a year of an apprenticeship in two trades.  So, you know, you have got fundamentals already there that you can go on with.  You are not walking out of gaol with nothing.  You are walking out of gaol as a person who has offended and used drugs for about 10 years and your spiral has just got worse and worse and worse - and this court deals with a lot of young blokes like you and they seem to hit the wall or the brick wall seems to fall down on them right at this age, sort of between

27 and 30.  If you are sitting there thinking, 'I'm an idiot,' you are not.  Plenty of young men do that and I know perfectly well that ice is no longer a party drug and that a lot of tradies use it just to keep going.  Now, you have used it for other reasons but I know that it is everywhere.  Your problem is, it has taken over and is ruining your life.  But you have got the fundamentals to come out of it.

54      

The neuro-psychological report, which was dated 5 February 2019 but

neuro-psychologist, Amy Dluzniak, talked about the fact that you may have a brain lesion.  That is nothing to be incredibly worried about but you have reported regular fainting episodes since about 2018.  That may account for it and that may be low level epilepsy.  Testing showed that you have average intellectual functioning.  There is a big difference between the scores of your memory when you are given

oral instruction and your memory when you are shown items.  Very low on the oral memory.  High average on the demonstrated memory. 

55      The great thing about this is that while you might be on the point of doing permanent brain damage with drug use, it has not happened yet.  You have got plenty of capacity there.  You have got reasonable organising and planning skills, incredibly important.  A lot of the executive functioning skills are still there.  As I said, you have got plenty to work with.

56      I note that you have been placed on 25 milligrams of methadone daily.  They started you off on 10.  They have moved you up to 25 and this is holding you and that is very, very good news.  Again, you were assessed by the neuro-psychologist as drug dependant at the time of the offending.

57      

Now, I received reports from both the

case management section of the DATO team and the drug and

alcohol treater on the DATO team.  Both of them find that the sorts of matters that a court has to look at,  that is, that the offending is essentially related to your drug offending, are satisfied.  The prosecution have also in their submissions, made concessions as to your suitability for the order.

58      

There was a mention in the prosecution assessment about there being perhaps some question around your drug dependency and your offending. With the greatest respect to the author of that report, in my view it is overwhelmingly evident on the material before me that your offending and drug use are intricately entwined. I have absolutely no problem in finding that. I find that the conditions, according to the reports that I have received that are required, have been satisfied in the Sentencing Act and I am prepared to place you on a drug and

alcohol treatment order and this is pursuant to s182Q(1)(a) - and pursuant to s182(1)C(ii) I accept that you were drug dependent at the time and that that dependency contributed to the commission of the offences.

59      

I am also satisfied that, however, your prior history, which although reasonably extensive could be a lot worse, and I think probably, had you kept going (because I am aware that there was an amount of offending that was still outstanding at the time that you were placed in custody in May 2021)  I think you were reaching another level.  But I do find that in the circumstances I can sentence you to a

term of imprisonment which brings you within the Drug and

Alcohol Treatment Order provisions.  That is, I am not persuaded that I need to sentence you to a term of imprisonment of more than four years.

60      I am satisfied that you have stabilised and detoxified in gaol and indeed, as I said, I believe you have done pretty well in gaol and that, in fact, gaol has been good for you and you are now appropriately medicated.

61      

I take into account the fact that you have never properly attended to

drug and alcohol treatment before.  I take into account that gaol has brought you back to a sense of reality, if I can put it that way.  It has brought you back from a state of psychosis and that the treatment conditions that exist and that will be offered to you under a DATO will be really very appropriate for you.

62      

Now, I need to say to you that there are two parts of a drug and alcohol

treatment order.  The first part is the treatment and supervision part of the order, which contains the core conditions, which I'll read out to you and they will last for as long as the custodial term that I am going to impose upon you.

63      

Now, what happens is, is that I impose a custodial term, that is, a

term of imprisonment.  But that is basically a term of imprisonment that I have estimated as being appropriate for you to serve if I was not going to place you on the DATO.  Because I am going to put you on a DATO you do not have to serve that term.  If, however, you breach the

core conditions (and they will keep going, those core conditions, for as long as the term of imprisonment that I would have otherwise imposed.)  If you are breached that sentence can be re-enlivened.  A bit like the old - do you remember the old suspended sentences?  If you breach a suspended sentence, up it comes.

64      

So, you will be at risk of breaching and bringing into play a possible

gaol sentence and the period of time - I have broken it up into sentencing for each of the offences but overall, the effect is three years and two months.  The core conditions will apply for three years and

two months.  The second part of the DATO is the program conditions and they last for two years.

65      So I am going to take you through.  First, I will go through the sentencing and then I will go through the order with you.  So, I am going to sentence you as follows.

66      

On Charge 1, burglary, you are sentenced to nine months imprisonment.  On Charge 2, theft, you are sentenced to three months imprisonment.  On Charge 3, armed robbery, you are sentenced to two years imprisonment.  On Charge 4, criminal damage, you are sentenced to

nine months imprisonment.  On Charge 5, theft of motor vehicle, you are sentenced to six months imprisonment.  On Charge 6, criminal damage, you are sentenced to four months imprisonment and on Charge 7, arson, you are sentenced to one year imprisonment.

67      

The base sentence will be the sentence imposed on Charge 3,

armed robbery, two years.  I order that three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 1, one month of the sentence imposed on

Charge 2, three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 4,

two months of the sentence imposed on Charge 5, one month of the sentence imposed on Charge 6 and four months of the sentence imposed on Charge 7 be served cumulatively to the sentence imposed on Charge 3 and to each other.  That gives a total effective sentence of

three years and two months, which is a sentence, if you undertake the DATO properly, you will never have to serve.

68      The core conditions and these are the core conditions that will apply on the order for the next three years and two months are, that whilst you are on the order you must not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment, either inside or outside Victoria.

69      Now, I want to make this very clear.  It does not mean that you have to be charged and sentenced to a term of imprisonment to breach that condition.  If you knock off a box of matches from Woolworths, theoretically, you could be gaoled for that and that would amount to a breach of that condition.  So, have you got it clear?  You commit any offence for which you could theoretically be gaoled you will breach that condition.

70      

Secondly, you must attend the Drug Court when you are required to do so.  So, you miss Drug Court, that breaches a core condition. 

Three, you must report to Melbourne Drug Courthouse or other specified place within two clear working days after the order is imposed.  Now, I understand it has been arranged, is this right, for you to attend

Drug Court next Monday.  Is that right or is it today?  I will ask you some questions when I come to the end of this.  So, thank you very much.

71      You must report to and accept visits from a member of the Drug Court.  You must undergo treatment for alcohol and drug dependency as specified in the order or by the Drug Court.  You must give notice of any change of address at least two clear working days before the change to a specified Drug Court officer.  So, if you go home and have a blue with mum and say, 'I'm out of here', you cannot do that.  And you need to understand as well, Actually, at the moment there are certain areas where if you live you cannot be on a DATO.  Luckily, your mother lives in a suburb which is covered by the DATO.  And I know you are coming out with the best of intentions but you have not lived with your mum for a while, have you?  No and I am sure there is - you know, so, there is going to be a bit of settling into that.

72      

So, if you think blowing up and charging out and going and staying with one of your mates is okay, it is not.  It is taken really seriously.  You have to let people know where you are living and if you decide you are going to go and live with someone who is not in what is called a gazetted area, which a DATO can cover, then it is not going to work.  I am telling you that because I need you to understand.  It is really important you work things out with Mum.  Your mother seemed incredibly excited the other day about having you home and seeing this as a great opportunity.  But let's be realistic, things are going to come up and the old way of flinging

out of the house and 'Bad luck and I'll go and stay with one of my mates,' is not an option for you anymore.

73      

You are not allowed to leave Victoria without the permission of the

Drug Court and you must obey all lawful instructions from the

Drug Court team.  Now, these conditions will last for three years and

two months.  The following program conditions will last for

two years.

74      

You are to submit for drug and alcohol testing as directed.  It is usually

three times a week.  Is that right?  You are going to be a busy man under this order.  We talked about that last time.  You must submit to detoxification or other treatment as specified in the order as directed.  You must attend vocational, educational and employment programs

as directed.  Really important, we want to get you back into work.

75      

You must not associate with Max Brunton.  If I could get the names of all your old drug using mates I would put them here.  If you have got

any sense at all because it is very hard, do not hang out with any

old mates.  Not one on them is going to say, 'Oh, good on you Indi, you're giving up drugs, I'm going to use but don't you'.  They will go, 'Come on, man, just have a taste, it won't matter'.  You know perfectly well that is what they are going to do.  You are going to have to stay away from all of them but it is an actual condition that you do not knock around with

Max Brunton.

76      You are to reside at an address as directed by the DATC case manager, that is with you mother until further order.  What is that address actually, Madam, could I ask?

VOICE (from the body of the court):  308 Victoria Street, Altona Meadows.

77      You have to live there.  You are to comply with a curfew that you remain at the address as directed between 9.00 pm and 6.00 am.  Now, that might sound tough but that is actually a help to you.  It is going to make it really hard for you to knock around with your old mates if you are on a curfew.  You had better get into Netflix or something else but you will actually need that.  That will actually help you.

78      You are to comply with an exclusion zone of Preston.  You are not allowed to go to Preston.  That was your old stamping ground, wasn't it, pretty much?  Is there anywhere else you would like to tell me that I could add to the order?  Well, it can be Preston for the moment.

79      

You are not allowed to drink alcohol.  You are not allowed to go to any licensed gambling venue.  No popping into the pub and using the pokies at all.  You must not do or not do anything else that the

DAT Court considers necessary or appropriate regarding your drug or alcohol dependency or the personal factors that the Drug and Alcohol

Treatment Court considers contributed to your behaviour.  And you waive all rights of confidentiality of communication between the

DAT Court and all treatment providers and government agencies.  So, basically, you have to tell them everything.

80      

Now, I make the comment and this will fall under the general conditions.  I would really like to see you sent off to a psychiatrist for assessment and treatment of your ADHD.  It just gets in the way.  You have got a lot of work to do on this order and I know you have got trouble focussing.  So, I would really like to see that attended to and if possible, I would like to see some testing for audio retention disorder and that is because a lot of the treatment that you receive is spoken and you may have trouble taking it in.  That is easily overcome, you know, worksheets, those

sorts of things.  That will work better for you than if you are sitting being

taught spoken to.  And I know that I am sitting here talking to you.  Are you having trouble taking in what I am saying?  No.  I did not think so but anyway, on an extended level that can happen.  So, I think that would be appropriate as well.

81      HER HONOUR:  Are you really clear on the order now?

82      ACCUSED:  Yes, Your Honour.

83      HER HONOUR:  Good.  All right.  I think I've attended to everything that I need to.  What is the PSD please, Mr Prosecutor?

84      MR HARRISON:  Apologies, Your Honour, one moment.  There was also the compensation order issue as well, Your Honour.

85      HER HONOUR:  I'll get to that in a moment.  Yes an thank you for your assistance with that.  Now, I don't actually say that you served 249 days.  If you breach the order and it comes up that you have to be sentenced the PSD will be noted on the order but I'm not noting it today.  All right.  Yes.  Now, the problem with the compensation order is this.  Mr Harrison

very kindly went off and checked.  Apparently and can I say, Mr Harrison,

incredibly insurance hasn't paid up on this.  Is that right?

86      MR HARRISON:  If I may, Your Honour, I believe the company may have attributed some fault to the owners of the business.

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