Director of Public Prosecutions v Rogan
[2023] VCC 2335
•6 December 2023
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT BALLARAT
CRIMINAL DIVISION
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| LUKE ROGAN |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD | |
WHERE HELD: | Ballarat | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 6 December 2023 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 6 December 2023 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Rogan | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [20243] VCC 2335 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Ms C. Pezzimenti | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr M. McLennan | Emma Turnbull Lawyers |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Luke Rogan, you have pleaded guilty on indictment to one charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice. That charge carries a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment.
2 You have also pleaded guilty to four uplifted summary matters, they being unlicensed driving, driving in a manner dangerous, use unregistered motor vehicle and fail a drug blood test within three hours of driving.
3 On the use unregistered motor vehicle, you are convicted and discharged.
4 On the unlicensed driving in this situation, you are also convicted and discharged.
5 And on the failed drug blood test you are convicted and discharged.
6 I am not going to fine a man who has been in gaol for a year.
7 That should just leave the drive in a manner dangerous.
8 You are now 31 years of age. You pleaded guilty reasonably early in opportunity and you must get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty.
9 Listening to the Crown opening, remorse would seem to be a distant concept for you insofar as all this is concerned but I have to take into account the plea. You have pleaded guilty in the time of Worboyes, also taking into account that your time in custody has been in these times of COVID.
10 You have a long and significant criminal history. Your prospects of rehabilitation are greatly problematic. The risk of you reoffending is described as medium. You have clearly had a drug problem for a significant period of time.
11 The offending, itself, has to be regarded as serious. It calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, denunciation and appropriate punishment.
12 A brief summary of the matter is that on 5 September 2022, you were seen driving in a drug affected and dangerous manner on the Western Highway. You were moving in and out of lanes, cutting across people and the nature of the driving could only be described as I have already said, as dangerous and indeed you have pleaded guilty to it.
13 As I understand it when police arrived at the scene you gave a different name to your own, but it was not the person who was involved in the pervert the course charge.
14 The vehicle had a false number plate. It was unregistered. You did not have a licence and you had amphetamine in your system.
15 Taking all those matters into account, so far as the dangerous driving is concerned, I sentence on the basis that is straight out deliberate driving in a dangerous manner by the speed and the reckless overtaking.
16 I am not sure about the amphetamine use being part of that. Experience has shown me in previous trials that then put to the test the experts tend to fail to live up to what they say in their statements. But be that as it may, the fact that you have not got a licence in my view had nothing to do with the dangerous driving. But in any event, it is a pretty ordinary piece of driving and is worthy of custody, bearing in mind in particular your criminal history which involves a number of driving matters and you have been gaoled before.
17 Where the trouble really starts from there is that you clearly from the moment the incident occurred where you rolled the vehicle after passing over the wire barrier on the Western Highway around 7.45 pm at night near Gordon, was that you immediately made the decision obviously to say that you were not driving. I understand your reason there was your concern of breaching a CCO and being imprisoned.
18 What you then did after that was contact a person known to you by the name of Karly Woollard. You asked her if she had any friends who would take the charges for money. You told her you were on a CCO and would go to gaol and that you would lose custody rights to your son. She apparently told you that she was willing to take the blame for the collision and because she felt sorry for your son.
19 As I understand it, she has not been charged but that is not my problem. She recalls you telling her to essentially tell the police in some detail that she was the driver and that she had to run away from the collision, ran from the impact afterwards and been picked up by somebody else.
20 She phoned police and apparently left a message to that effect. She later found out the charges were serious. You told her she would only get slap on the wrist.
21 She then in late November 2022, a few weeks after that, made a statement to police confirming she was not the driver, but she knew who the driver was but was not going to disclose the name due to personal fear.
22 After that followed a series of text messages which are utterly disgraceful. They display no remorse whatsoever and essentially blaming her for the trouble you have totally brought upon yourself.
23 Be that as it may, that is what you are charged with and that is what you need to get sentenced for.
24 It is not the worst case of pervert the course I have ever seen and in fact it did not work and she did not go through with it. Ultimately, you admitted to being the driver, so that the course of justice was in fact not perverted as it turned out. But still, again, it is a situation that requires a custodial sentence.
25 In terms of the matters personal to you, you are now as I have said, 31. I have got a report from Ms Cidoni, which essentially sets out your background. I do not need to go into great detail of that here. I accept that your childhood was a very difficult one. You had a stepfather who was violent and strict.
26 At the age of 14 you were dropped off at the Perth Airport and you came into contact with your natural father, who you had never known before. You went back to Perth when you were about 20 to see your mother but she rejected you. You did not get along well with your stepmother. You moved out of home at the age of 15 and experienced periods of couch surfing. You have got an older sister who lives in Broome, that you told Ms Cidoni you were not in contact with but be that as it may.
27 You have had brief relationships. You have a child, Alex, with whom you had as I understand it at one stage, certainly full custody and he is now currently living with his maternal grandmother due to your imprisonment.
28 You have had various jobs on and off over the years. You worked as a concrete labourer, a carpet layer and such matters.
29 You used cannabis daily from the age of 15. You did MDMA and cocaine. GHB and methylamphetamine were the heaviest you had used. You did that since you were about 17.
30 I am told and have no reason not to accept that prior to all this occurring you stopped using for about 18 months but it relapsed during this period of time. Apparently, your son had been placed with a maternal aunt for a period and that caused you to go off the rails.
31 Of importance in my view is that you did attend Odyssey House for three months in 2021, when your son was in your care. That was court ordered but shows that you can in fact maintain abstinence if you are in a situation to do so.
32 Ms Cidoni said you presented a complex clinical picture of major depressive episodes, generalised anxiety and drug related issues. The major depressive order I take into account. The generalised anxiety order I take into account.
33 In an overall sense, it is a bit hard to think that in these circumstances what you did on that particular occasion has got much to do with Verdins. But again, this was indicated a couple of times during the course of these sentencing remarks be that as it may.
34 In the end, I think you have done enough for it, despite your prior history. I have taken into account the references that have been tendered on your behalf. You will be released from custody shortly. You are on remand until next week apparently in the Magistrates' Court.
35 I do not know what is going to happen with all those matters but what I propose to do in this situation is you have been in custody on these matters for 317 days.
36 What I will do is I will sentence you to be in prison for a period of 300 days and I direct those 300 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence.
37 By next week that will give the magistrate at least something to play with when it comes to sentencing on breach of CCO, which I am told is upcoming, which should have you in a situation where you can return to live with your father and hopefully endeavour to regain access or custody if you can of your child.
38 In these circumstances there is not much else I can say. As I indicated, reoffending and rehabilitation are totally up to you. It is pretty ugly offending if this is the way you are going to carry on but again, that is really up to you.
39 Insofar as the dangerous drive is concerned, any licence with a motor vehicle is cancelled and you are disqualified from obtaining a licence for a period of six months.
40 The 300 days is an aggregate of the pervert the course and there – you can do that?
41 MS PEZZIMENTI: I'm just about to check that, Your Honour. I just – I think so.
42 HIS HONOUR: I will not take the risk. What I will do is I will make it 300 days on pervert the course, 200 days on the dangerous driving and make them concurrent.
43 MS PEZZIMENTI: Yes, Your Honour.
44 HIS HONOUR: That is the safest way of doing.
45 MS PEZZIMENTI: Yes. I think so. Yes.
46 HIS HONOUR: Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I say that but for your plea of guilty – yes that works actually. I would have sent you to be in prison for a period of 400 days but with a minimum term. All right. That covers all that.
47 MR McLENNAN: There's nothing further from me, Your Honour.
48 MS PEZZIMENTI: No.
49 HIS HONOUR: No. There are no other orders I need to make. I am just trying to be – doing these right on the spur of the moment can add dangers to it. There is nothing anyone can think of that has got to be done or has not been done?
50 MS PEZZIMENT: No, Your Honour. No. That covers everything.
51 HIS HONOUR: Yes. All right. Yes. Thanks for that. Thanks, 9.30 tomorrow.
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