Director of Public Prosecutions v Ridley

[2016] VCC 2080

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-16-01090

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

KANE RIDLEY

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE GAYNOR
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	12 October 2016
DATE OF SENTENCE:	12 October 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Ridley
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 2080

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr P. Pickering
For the Offender	Mr S. Andrianakis

1HER HONOUR:  I will proceed to sentence now.  It will be a corrections order and I am going to order another 200 hours of unpaid community work.  As always I reserve the right to edit the grammar that inevitably accompanies my ex tempore sentences.  You can remain seated, Mr Ridley, until I tell to you stand. 

2Kane Ridley, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of handling stolen goods. You have agreed to two summary charges being heard before this court pursuant to s.145 of the Criminal Procedure Act, they being a charge of committing an indictable offence whilst on bail and a charge of possessing a Holden engine suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

3Can you tell me about that, please, Mr Andrianakis, I haven't had any ‑ ‑ ‑

4MR ANDRIANAKIS:  Yes, he met someone while he was in custody who owned a factory and was in the process of either moving out, or being kicked out of that factory, and he agreed with that person that he would help that man's partner to remove the items from the factory, and most of the items went to the man's partner's house and the items that he has been charged with ended up at his house.

5HER HONOUR:  Very, very careless.  Thanks, very much. 

6The facts underlining your offending are as follows:

7In the early hours of 6 November 2014 a burglary took place at Hughes Super Car Services in Braeside where two Ferraris were stolen.  Police believed the thefts to have been committed by one Bradley Abela and Matthew Ludwig.  One of the Ferraris was a 1972 Daytona model, which is the subject of Charge 1 on the indictment, and was valued at $1.5 to $2m.  The co‑offenders drove that Ferrari Daytona to the Langwarrin area and between about 5.45 and 8 am that morning you received a number of calls from them whereby you were asked by Matthew Ludwig if you could do him a favour and store a car for a few hours.  You knew that something was not quite right with the car, but you did not ask questions and agreed to help.  You then contacted friends to store the car, eventually receiving assistance from your friend Amanda Gordon, with whom you had been in an on‑and‑off relationship for about six or seven years. 

8You arranged to meet Mr Ludwig at her house and it was then that you discovered the car was a rare Ferrari.  You were also told a second Ferrari had been stolen and was somewhere in Patterson Lakes. 

9You agreed to assist storing them in Ms Gibson's garage until 5 pm, at which time that car was to be picked up and removed by Mr Ludwig.  In the meantime you began searching Google at about 8 o'clock that morning for Ferrari Daytonas and Ferrari Spiders, Spider being the model name of the second Ferrari stolen. 

10You also that morning heard news about the stolen Ferraris.  Mr Ludwig failed to attend at 5 pm as organised on that day and, in fact, came to Ms Gibson's house in the early hours of the following morning.  There was some difficulty starting the car due to a flat battery, but eventually Ludwig was able to drive it away.  The Daytona was seen on fire in a paddock in nearby Langwarrin at about 4.00 am that morning.  You were seen later that morning observing the burnt out car. 

11I have read statements you made to police in relation to this matter and understand from your statement that when you discovered that the car had been burnt, were horrified and could not believe it, and attended on the site to make sure if it had, in fact, occurred, part of that horror being that the burning of the car occurred so close to Ms Gibson's home. 

12Later that night Bradley Abela had contacted you about helping him move the second Ferrari.  You said you would see what you could do, but nothing eventuated.  That car was found burnt out in Frankston on November 9 2015 and no charges have been laid against you in relation to that. 

13Police attended on your house in Frankston.  You were not present, but they searched the premises and located a whole engine and gearbox with its number removed which was suspected of being the proceeds of crime.  Your possession of that engine underlies the second summary charge, possession of proceeds of crime. 

14You were then interviewed at Frankston police station where you made full admissions about hiding the Ferrari Daytona and subsequently made two confessional statements to police on 11 and 12 May.  You have also given evidence on oath in this court to the effect that you will give evidence at a committal hearing being faced by Bradley Abela and Matthew Ludwig as to the contents of those statements, understanding that if you fail to swear up any disposition imposed by this court can be re‑visited and you will be re‑sentenced. 

15The maximum penalty for handling stolen goods is 15 years' imprisonment.  The maximum penalty for committing an indictable offence whilst on bail is three months' imprisonment or 15 penalty units, and the maximum penalty for dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime is two years' imprisonment or 240 demerit points. 

16No victim‑impact statement by the owner of the Ferrari Daytona has been made. 

17You were remanded in custody in relation to these charges between 3 March and 3 May this year. 

18I now turn to your personal circumstances. 

19You are 35 years old and work as a self‑employed kitchen installer.  You have no prior convictions in relation to this matter, but have been dealt with subsequently for trafficking and possession and use of drugs together with associated dishonesty offences in circumstances that I will describe later in my sentencing remarks. 

20Up until this offending you led a fairly impressive life, whereby you completed VCE at Frankston High School where you were a school captain.  You then undertook a cabinet apprenticeship and soon after opened up your own business which, over a period of about eight years, was extremely successful, to the point that you were employing 30 people, but the rapid expansion of your business, the associated pressures, administrative and management requirements arising from it, proved too much for you and in about 2010 you went into liquidation. 

21You then in 2011 started up again on a smaller scale where you essentially began a business called Savvy Kitchens which involved you in the occasional use of a sub‑contractor, which your counsel informed me suited you far better. 

22Around this time you met your partner Nadia.  The two of you lived together and on 1 January 2014 she gave birth to your son Cade Ridley.  It was, however, in the course of that relationship and pregnancy that your life in a personal sense went off‑track and you became involved in drug use.  It seems that soon after she became pregnant Nadia started suffering psychological side‑effects from pregnancy such that she had to visit a psychologist.  She was prescribed an antidepressant, and Seroquel, a drug usually often prescribed for psychotic‑type behaviour.  You informed me that the whole relationship essentially fell apart.  She became obsessive about household tasks.  It appears there was little you could do and at her request you spent about 50 per cent of the time living away from home during her pregnancy, and, indeed, by the time your son was born the two of you were frankly separated. 

23After the birth of your son your relationship with Nadia went from bad to worse and you were given very little opportunity to see your son, which you found extremely difficult. 

24Whilst living away from Nadia during her pregnancy you lived with friends at Patterson Lakes who, unbeknownst to you, were ice users.  Eventually you fell into a depression over what had happened with the relationship and your lack of contact with your son and found that this was affecting your work in that you found it very difficult because of your depression to get out of bed and go to work, and you did not have motivation in your working life at all.  It was at this point in time you were introduced to ice, which seemed to you to be a sort of medicinal cure‑all whereby you were able to find the energy you needed for your employment, and your use of it rapidly increased. 

25You informed me on the plea that you did not regard it as a drug but as medicine.  Eventually, as is always the case with ice users, where the use of it increases rapidly, which it always does, the cost of it started to hit you and you began trafficking in that and other drugs in order to fund your habit.  However, this was quite successful and it seems that this involved you selling to quite a number of people. 

26In any event, you were arrested in relation to this and on 20 April 2016 you were dealt with by the Frankston Magistrates' Court for trafficking methamphetamine and cocaine; possession of amphetamines, possession of ecstasy; driving offences and failing to appear.  You were placed on a 12 month community corrections order which involved work hours as well as conditions to attend for assessment and treatment for drug use. 

27You were placed on a second community corrections order in June 2016 for offending which appeared to have arisen out of a dispute with a customer whereby you were holding a number of household items in order to build cabinets around them.  They did not pay you and you held on to the items.  Somehow police became involved and you were charged with theft.  In any event, that was a 12 month community corrections order with a condition of work hours only. 

28You were in custody from March until May 2016.  In that time you it would appear underwent detoxification, and fortunately for you were visited by your friend Mr Bruce Wrigley who had at that time started his own diesel mechanic business.  You had been close friends for about 15 years, as was his evidence on the plea, and he offered you employment on your release from custody.  Importantly he stated that you expressed to him a determination to stay off drugs, talking about drawing a line in the sand, one side of it being your past life, and the other side of it being the life you hoped to live in the future. 

29Since your release you have again started up your business, worked on a part‑time basis for Mr Wrigley when he has work for you and, on occasion, he working for you when you have work for him. 

30Your life in the community since your release has not been particularly easy.  It has become known that you have made statements to police, naming names, if you like, and you gave evidence on oath about threats you have received, both by way of telephone and text, to the point that those threats have interfered with your capacity to carry out unpaid community work on the community corrections order. 

31I received a letter from your community corrections officer, Ms Leslie Knight, to that effect, and work has been arranged at a site where you no longer feel under threat. 

32I do accept that you are remorseful for your offending, not only because of the extremely cooperative record of interview that you conducted with police, or your plea of guilty which was entered at an early stage, but primarily because of the statements you have made to police and the undertaking on oath you have given to assist the prosecution by giving evidence at the committal proceedings of those who were involved in the theft of the two Ferraris. 

33I accept your counsel's submission that the most appropriate disposition in your case is a community corrections order, and I note that this is not a disposition cavilled with by the prosecution.

34I, therefore, propose to place you on a community corrections order.  I note that the possession of the engine was a piece of carelessness on your part. 

35Mr Ridley, you need to be really, really careful about those sorts of items.  I know that when you are working in a trade it is very easy to come across various bits and pieces which can be used, recycled and re‑used, and you have really got to watch it, all right?  By the time you leave this court you are going to be on three CCOs.  You really cannot afford to become involved in any way with anything that you do not precisely know the origins and ownership of, do you understand me? 

36OFFENDER:  Yes.

37HER HONOUR:  All right.  By the time you leave this court, and I am sure Mr Nikakis will have spoken to you about this, you will have multiple priors for trafficking multiple drugs, and a couple of nasty priors in relation to dishonesty matters, because your prior conviction sheet will show that you have appeared in the County Court on a charge of handling stolen goods, which means it is a “big handle”, if I can put it that way.  So for your own sake I hope your foray into criminal offending has ended. 

38Before I can place you on this order I must receive your consent.  Can you stand up please, sir.  First you must report to the Office of Corrections within two days of the making of this order.  Whilst on the order you must not commit an offence punishable by imprisonment.  You must report to and receive visits from the Office of Corrections.  You must not leave Victoria without the permission of the Office of Corrections.  You must obey all lawful directions of the Office of Corrections.  You must not attend upon the Office of Corrections whilst under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  You must inform the Office of Corrections of any change of address or employment within 48 days. 

39I am going to order a special condition that you undertake 200 hours of unpaid community work.  I am going to order that the community corrections order last for a period of 15 months.  Are you prepared to enter this order? 

40OFFENDER:  Absolutely.

41HER HONOUR:  Thank you, have seat, sir. 

42I am going to sign the forfeiture orders.  No 464ZF application?  No sample has been taken, even in relation to the previous charges? 

43MR PICKERING:  No, it hasn't, Your Honour, and what has been handed to you in anticipation, perhaps, of the CCO is the non‑custodial version of the orders, but, yes, we would seek that order.

44HER HONOUR:  What do you say, Mr Andrianakis? 

45MR ANDRIANAKIS:  I have nothing to say, Your Honour.

46HER HONOUR:  All right.  So you must report to the Frankston police station within 28 days of leaving this court and I am going to order that they take a swab, I am not allowing a blood sample, and I need to inform you that police are entitled to use reasonable force to obtain that sample if you do not consent to it being taken. 

47A declaration is not required pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act because it is a straight CCO.

48I thank counsel very much for their assistance in this matter.  Good luck with giving the evidence, it will not be easy, but all the best to you.  Thank you very much.  We will now adjourn. 

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