Director of Public Prosecutions v Rose

[2016] VCC 576

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-15-01582

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

DAVID ROSE

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE GUCCIARDO
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	6 May 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Rose
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 576

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	Ms E. Hill	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Offender	Mr J.G. Westmore	Stary, Norton, Halphen

HIS HONOUR: 

1David Graham Rose, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment including three charges, one of trafficking in a drug of dependence, namely methylamphetamine; one of theft; and one of possessing a drug of dependence, namely Xanax.

2You also pleaded guilty to one related summary charge of dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

3You were a drug associate of several co-accused including Jessica Fogarty and Jessica Short who have already been sentenced by this court.  You were one of a number of co-offenders sourcing illicit drugs and supplying the same within the north-east region of Victoria.  The major drug sourced was methylamphetamine, commonly known as ice.

4You provided police with a signed statement giving an insight into your personal circumstances, drug associations and involvement in the criminal activities, but you have not given an undertaking to give evidence pursuant to it in any proceedings.

5As I stated in sentencing your co-accused, Jessica Fogarty, the Wangaratta region experienced a sharp increase in firearms related burglaries committed upon rural properties between the latter part of 2014 into 2015.  Some of your co-accused were arrested and found in possession of some of those stolen firearms.  Firearms were used as a commodity to purchase drugs and satisfy drug debts amongst the syndicate.  Some were sold and/or traded to unknown criminal associates located elsewhere.

6You have admitted having used drugs such as ice and cannabis (for two or three years) as well as speed, on and off for most of your adult life.  You admitted consuming half an eight ball of ice a week, an eight ball being 3.5 grams, and paying between $650-$850 a week to support your habit, which you could hardly afford.

7This saw you run into debts to a number of suppliers.  Amongst others, you had outstanding debts to Fogarty, your supplier of choice.  You arranged to meet her at different places in Wangaratta, resorting to SMS messages.  You would also purchase ice from Short and you would get that from her on credit.  You indicated that Fogarty and Short were the biggest suppliers in the area.

8Even if you appear to have downplayed the amounts, you admitted to having sold a few points of ice here and there to get money to buy gear for yourself to support your own habit and without making any real profit.  You complained about being in debt, which in turn led your partner and children to separate from you.

9During 2014, in your frequent dealings with Fogarty, you would arrange to meet her to source drugs for yourself, sometimes on credit, sometimes by paying cash or trading goods.  Sometimes you would do that on behalf of others.  You would also sell drugs for Fogarty, usually ice, but also ecstasy tablets and return payments to her.  You would also collect outstanding payments for Fogarty, whether in cash or goods from some of her customers.  You would also source cutting agents from Fogarty in order to maximise your profit when on-selling drugs you had purchased.

10On one occasion you offered Fogarty an iPhone as partial payment of your debt.  On another occasion you offered her a shotgun, which she said you could retrieve from an associate of yours.  You later indicated that this was just something you said to convince her to meet up with you and deliver drugs to you.

11During a search police located a single tablet of Xanax in your possession, and it is not alleged that it was possessed for purposes of trafficking.

12In relation to the theft charge in July 2014, investigators executed a search warrant on your premises in an attempt to recover a stolen laptop computer believed to have been taken from a local pub.  They were unable to locate it.  You gave an undertaking to police to return the laptop to them after being released from custody and in your interview you stated that you grabbed the laptop while drinking at the pub and then traded it to Fogarty.  You undertook to arrange for its recovery.  You then informed Fogarty that police had searched at your home and requested that she return to you the laptop which you had previously given to her.  She did so and in turn you returned it to the police.

13You also pleaded guilty to one count of dealing with proceeds of crime, namely a Sony laptop computer.  Police retrieved the laptop during a search conducted on your car which was intercepted and searched.  It could not be identified as stolen, but you made admissions to police and you had received it from a known drug user, you believed it to be stolen.

14These last two matters stand in some respects to your credit and I have taken those matters into account.  You were ultimately arrested on 12 September 2014 and initially remanded in custody.  You were then bailed on 15 December 2014 and this amounts to 94 days of pre-sentence detention, which are noted on the court records as having been served.

15A detailed summary of prosecution opening was tendered.  It details the involvement that you had with Fogarty, Short and the trade in drugs in which you engaged over the period of the indictment.  The summary was exhibited and will be retained on the court file.

16The fact that drug users do so voluntarily, does not mean that drug trafficking is a victimless crime.  Receipt of drugs of dependence is itself a crime and unlikely to be disclosed by users.  The criminal activity of trafficking is therefore deliberately hidden.  Those who traffic prey on users, distribute free amounts, use credit and attract in effect users in a vortex of addiction. Traffickers have direct victims and customers and indirect victims - the families of customers and the community around them.

17The duration of the offending is clearly relevant.  This was an ongoing business of trafficking over a four month period.  The primary indicator of scale is quantity of drug involved, which was traded, paid for, ordered and discussed. Clearly, the scale can be gauged from the amounts of money being offered and recorded for the purposes of the substances.  The evidence which is mentioned and accepted adequately describe the scale of the trafficking being in the thousands of dollars.  The deliberateness and premeditation with which the trafficking was put in place reflects that the trafficking was not only driven by your addiction but in part by greed and it is a criminal mindset which ignores social damage and falls to be described as lawlessness.  The undertaking had all the hallmarks of a substantial business involving the exploitation of those who had a drug dependency with all its misery.

18Upon release from custody in July 2014, following police arrest and search, you contacted Fogarty to buy ice from her, because you had a customer and told her you could sell even more and you discussed money and cutting agents.  Given all these factors, there can be no doubt that the evidence establishes a continuing trade of business of dealing drugs on a regular basis during the four months which are covered by the indictment and the transmission of drugs from source to consumer.

19The scale of human harm to victims must be taken into account and I do so.  The impact of such large scale trafficking in a small rural community like Wangaratta and surrounding areas is significant.  The potential harm done to victims and the consequences, potential or real, to persons addicted to ice, their health, the consequences on family, social structures, consequential criminality and the very fabric of the community must be considered when the court looks at the intent to traffic and its gravity. 

20Trafficking is often difficult to detect and dangerous as well.  Ice is a most addictive drug and the community generally is alarmed by its prevalence and the behaviour of users, particularly the propensity for violence it often provokes.  It is a pernicious drug and its trafficking is significant social evil with serious consequences.  Drugs of addiction wantonly sourced and distributed and used constitute and continue to present to a modern society a heavy and hardly tolerable burden. 

21The community looks to the court to denounce such conduct by clear penalties to protect it by the imposition of appropriate punishment which generally will deter those who would be minded to engage in it.  It is particularly incumbent on the court to so act when those charged before it are those who are active in this activity, those who pursue this conduct with determination over long periods.

22Where people like you are significant operators, even in the middle range of an organisation, it is obvious that you should expect punishment.  Substantial retribution must be exacted from those who deliberately and cynically and greedily seek to profit from this conduct.  This applies also to people at your level who know exactly the high stakes involved and potential punishment if caught.

23General deterrence and community protection, to my mind, must be primary considerations in your sentence.  It also means that your personal circumstances will have lesser weight than might otherwise be given although they remain relevant.  In this context it is relevant that you were motivated in part by the need to fund your own habit.  That makes you somewhat less culpable than if the motive had been pure greed.

24I accept that your plea and assistance by way of your statements have been motivated by some repentance and remorse, to the extent to which a court can ever be secure of that assessment.  As to the foreshadowed amendment of life, this is just as difficult to assess for a court, however in your case there are some positive indicators.

25You have a criminal history.  In 2003, you had five court appearances in which you were dealt with for street offences and then assaulting police and riot for which you were placed on a community-based order which you breached, leading to youth training and dishonesty offences. 

26In 2006, you again assaulted police and rioted and recklessly caused serious injury from which you were imprisoned.

27In 2007, you have a prior for violence.

28In 2009, you have a New South Wales prior for violent behaviour.

29In 2012, for possession and use of a drug of dependence and, more importantly, for trafficking in a drug of dependence and you were placed on a community corrections order for a year.

30In 2013, you had priors for an assault and criminal damage with a consequent suspended sentence.  You contravened the community corrections order but the order was confirmed to run to August 2013, less than a year before the offences I am dealing with here.

31This record is relevant to your prospects of rehabilitation and taken by itself would probably mean that your prospects are guarded at the very least, but I take it into account in this assessment and I take what has happened since (which I will speak about in a moment) into account.

32I also take your personal background into account.  You are 31 years of age.  You were 29 at the date of the offending.  Your parents separated when you were very young and your childhood was characterised by a life in the midst of domestic violence and substance abuse.  By age ten you used cannabis and you left school having completed Year 8.  Your childhood was properly described as dysfunctional and transient. 

33You have two older brothers, two older sisters and five step siblings from relationships your parents had subsequent to their separation.  Your father kidnapped you on a number of occasions when you were living with your mother.  At times he would move the family in the middle of the night so as to evade police.  You spent time in foster homes.  You see your mother about twice a year and have monthly phone contact with her.  You are relatively close to your sisters.  Two of your elder siblings trafficked in drugs.  Your childhood was punctuated by your attendance at 13 different schools.  You have had employment on and off as a labourer, cleaner of abattoirs and sewing garments. 

34You are currently separated from your long term partner, whom you met in 2006.  You have a six year old and a baby son, some five months old.  Your hope is to reconcile with them and are in daily contact with her and the children. 

35Some traumatic events have exacerbated your drug use.  In 2006 you pulled your dead niece out of a bathtub.  In 2011, there was a stillbirth of a child and an incident relating to his ashes.

36By age 18 you were using speed.  In 2006, upon release from gaol, you met the mother of your two children.  In 2010 you commenced using ice and I have mentioned the extent of your use previously, as it is described in the prosecution summary.  In 2011 you had attempted rehabilitation but apparently the birth of a stillborn son sparked the relapse into substance abuse.  The theft of the boy's ashes following a burglary apparently also made things worse.  This was in March 2014, just before the offence date between May and August 2014.  You were arrested in September 2014 and remanded in custody.

37There is no evidence of trafficking between August and September 2014.  You were granted bail in December.  In October you provided police with a statement of information.  You entered a plea at the earliest opportunity.  As to the statement I consider that this is to your credit and take that assistance to ameliorate your sentence slightly.

38Your plea will by law attract a discount appropriate to the utilitarian value of the plea, having avoided a trial in the matters and being accompanied by remorse.  In October your partner gave birth to a third child.  I take into account the fact that despite you not making an undertaking to give evidence, by providing some information you opened yourself up to risk and in fact you have been threatened and assaulted by an associate of a co-accused.  This caused your first plea date to be adjourned.

39It was submitted that you played the role of a street level dealer, albeit prolific.  Although the scope of your trafficking can be distinguished in terms of culpability from those in the hierarchy, you sat at the very top of it and trafficked in not less than a commercial quantity, and were a wholesaler over a long period.  I am not persuaded that the nomination of you as a street level dealer fully and properly describes your criminality.  Your offending lies in the middle range of trafficking aggravated by your dealing in stolen property on two occasions and the offering of the firearm to Fogarty on another.

40Although I accept that there is no evidence that you ever possessed a firearm, it was suggested you made the offer as a ruse, but beyond accepting this explanation there is a reasonable possibility I need make no other finding about it.  The theft being opportunistic was unusually resolved and it falls at the lower end of this type of offending.

41It is also difficult to accept the bare proposition that you were not motivated to traffic by greed, rather only to fund your own drug habit.  Although the latter may be a fundamental need and motive to traffic, your involvement, as demonstrated by the material, shows you to have often acted in order to make money.  Whether that money was directly derived for the sole purpose of drug debt repayment is to be doubted.  In my view, it has been a major component of your trafficking, but not all sums were directly related to this habit. 

42I accept, however, that there is no evidence that you made a profit from this enterprise and that is often the case where drug habits and debts and lifestyle of a user are all in play.  I accept that you sold to users and in that sense you were a street level dealer.

43The possession of the Xanax comprises a single tablet and falls at the lower end of possession of a drug of dependence.

44There is a history of mental health issues.  A letter dated 8 December 2015 was received, which was addressed to the Albury Mental Health Team from
Dr Gooha at the Corowa Medical Centre thanking the team for reviewing your long term depression.  It is said therein that you were under the care of Wangaratta Mental Health Team in the past to deal with depression and/or schizophrenia.  It was noted you have failed to attend a forensic psychological assessment.

45Since being granted bail, you have not re-offended, although you were driving without a licence on an occasion in New South Wales.  You have significantly moderated your weekly drug use, but it was said that you have not trafficked.  You did attend, before relapsing, a course of drug counselling, however homelessness interrupted that attempt at rehabilitation.  It was not until August that you secured a rental accommodation.  Having separated from your partner, you now reside with your sister.

46A letter was received from the Salvation Army verifying that as of February 2016 you had registered as a volunteer in Belmont New South Wales, helping out in a number of tasks, including lawn mowing, vacuuming and cleaning bins, cleaning toilets, gardening for three days per week.  You have started a ten week program called Positive Lifestyles and you were in week four of such program since February.  As of 5 February, you were assessed as suitable to do the Bridge Program, which is a ten month program, or up to ten months.  You were then placed on a waiting list.  The program had a number of conditions. 

47These rehabilitative efforts stand to your credit and it is said that your admission at that time was imminent to that program.  You have been asked to check in weekly since the assessment and you have done so.  You are on a priority list according to a letter from Therese Hanstrom, the Assessment and Referral Officer with the Salvation Army, dated 9 March, and you were waiting to be offered a bed at the Dooralong Transformation Centre as soon as a bed became available.

48By letter dated 6 May, which I have exhibited this morning, from the Senior Case Worker at the Lake Macquarie Recovery Service Centre, Mr Grant Hume, from the Salvation Army, I was informed that you entered the Bridge Program at Dooralong on 14 March 2016.  You have therefore been there for eight weeks and in that time he reports that you have started to display a committed attitude to address the issues arising from your substance addiction.  You are engaged with that program and it would last for a little time to come.  This is a very positive outcome in relation to your future.

49These efforts, particularly of the last three months present the court with a significant tension into sentencing principles.  The guidelines as to the imposition of a community corrections order being clarified recently by the Court of Appeal in Boulton's case, it seems to me that your case is one in which is finely balanced and that is because your offending stands in the middle range in relation to trafficking and the primary principles of just punishment, denouncement and particularly general deterrence are important considerations.

50Other principles to be taken into account as purposes for this sentence and in particular prospects of rehabilitation and specific deterrence, create a tension which in my view ultimately falls to be determined by a proper appreciation of the adequacy of punishment contained in the community corrections order, as well as the inherent and long term prospects of rehabilitation as currently being undertaken by you in the Bridge Program.  This has the potential of the greatest community protection in the long term because of your rehabilitation and reclamation, by which the community benefits as well as yourself personally.

51I had you assessed for a community corrections order and have received a pre-sentence report, dated 11 March.  I have delayed sentencing in order to enable you to enter the Bridge Program and to fulfil one of its core obligations of not having a court appearance within the first four weeks of admission, and this has now taken place.

52Given this situation, in the light of the matters set out in Boulton, which I have reviewed, it appears to me that a community corrections order is the sentencing disposition which enables all the purposes of punishment to be served simultaneously in a coherent and balanced way, despite the seriousness of your offending, particularly given the range of conditions which will pertain to the order, to impinge on your liberty and require you to comply with conditions which are essentially punitive in character, but which at the same time help your rehabilitation.

53In this context I will impose a work component which will have to be undertaken later than usual in order to allow you to complete the Bridge Program.  Since it cannot be transferred outside Victoria, you may need to complete it in this jurisdiction.  The order will be made in combination with a period of imprisonment which will be by way of your pre-sentence detention time already served by you for these matters.

54On the trafficking in a drug of dependence, Charge 1, you are convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment and a community corrections order for two years.

55On the count of theft of a laptop, you are convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment, which will be concurrent.

56I note that you have served 94 days by way of pre-sentence detention. 

57On the count of possession of a drug of dependence of the Xanax, you are convicted and sentenced to one month imprisonment concurrent.

58On the possession of proceeds of crime, you are convicted and sentenced to two months' imprisonment, which will also be concurrent.

59The community corrections order will be in place for two years.  You are ordered to perform 300 hours of unpaid community work at the directions of Corrections.  There will be a non-association condition, that is, you are to not associate with any of the co-accused in this matter.  You will be subject to supervision by Corrections.  You will undergo treatment and rehabilitation for drug and alcohol as directed during the course of the order by Community Corrections.  You will undertake programs to reduce offending during its duration at the direction of the Community Corrections Service.  You are to reside at the Salvation Army at Dooralong Transformation Centre for purposes of the Bridge Program until you are directed otherwise by the supervision of Community Corrections.  This supervisory role will be undertaken by the New South Wales Community Corrections at Wyong, who are prepared to supervise you and you will obey all directions of Community Corrections in relation to that program.

60Mr Rose, by taking this particular disposition, I want to emphasise that this is not a "get out of gaol free" card that you have received from me today, but it is the best opportunity for a new start that you will probably get in your entire life.  I hope you understand it.  Your progress on the Bridge Program is very positive, I hope you complete it and you move on.

61However, for those 24 months in which this order will be in place, you will have significant obligations to turn up at appointments, to receive counselling assessment and treatment as directed.  I suggest to you that you do not breach this order, because if you do you will be brought back before the court and then I will have to deal with you in some other way, do you understand?

62OFFENDER:  Yes.

63HIS HONOUR:  It is an opportunity for you to complete that program, complete that work program.  At the end of that period you will be able to get on with your life away from drugs, I hope, but that is a matter entirely for you if you want to have a working life in the best years of your life with a family, with children, without needing to come back to court.  I can assure you if you do return to court, there will not be another community corrections order waiting for you, no matter how many programs you undertake.  Do you understand?

64OFFENDER:  Yes.

65HIS HONOUR:  There will be some documentation for Mr Rose to sign.

66MR WESTMORE:  If Your Honour pleases.

67HIS HONOUR:  I have signed the disposal orders.

68MS HILL:  As Your Honour pleases.

69HIS HONOUR:  I will sign the 464ZF order.

70MS HILL:  As Your Honour pleases.

71HIS HONOUR:  Mr Rose, I have also made an order that a biological sample be taken from you.  That will be done by way of mouth scraping.  It is not a painful procedure.  That is in order to put your DNA on a database.  Do you understand?

72OFFENDER:  Yes.

73HIS HONOUR:  At the time that a police officer authorised to do so makes a request of you for that procedure, if you do not consent to it happening, then the authorised police officer can use reasonable force to take a blood sample from you.  Do you understand?

74OFFENDER:  Yes.

75HIS HONOUR:  I have signed that order.  Are there any other orders?

76MS HILL:  No, Your Honour.

77HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  I take it that administratively you will now simply go back to the Bridge Program.  The period of imprisonment that I have coupled with the community corrections order is covered by the pre-sentence detention period largely, I would have thought, so your primary obligation now is to simply go back to Dooralong and make sure that you do well during that program.  Do you understand?

78OFFENDER:  Yes.

79HIS HONOUR:  Good.  Yes, all right.  All right, well you can step down from the dock and sit behind your counsel.  I will wait.  Just come and take a seat behind your barrister.

80Mr Rose, I am curious about the Bridge Program.  Can you tell me what it is that you do on a day-to-day basis?  I know that you attend counselling, one on one.  You are actually living at the particular centre, are you?

81OFFENDER:  Yes.  Every day has got programs.  Wake up at 6.30 in the morning.  Go to work from 6.30 to 7.30.

82HIS HONOUR:  What sort of work do you do?

83OFFENDER:  Work in stables.

84HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

85OFFENDER:  I was in the kitchen but I got a transfer into stables working with all the animals.  Then go to brekky - oh, roll call at 8 o'clock and then brekky and then start my first program at 8.30 in the morning to 9.30.

86HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

87OFFENDER:  And that is like on Sundays it is correction, just whatever - just the steps, the 12 steps of NA.

88HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

89OFFENDER:  Then it goes until 9.30, then from quarter past ten until 11.30, quarter to 12, there is no program.  That it might be step of the week, it might be - I am doing an anxiety, depression one at the moment and start anger management next week.

90HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

91OFFENDER:  And then lunch time is from about 12 to one and then from 3 o'clock to 3.30 I go back down to the stables and feed all the animals.  And then of a night time from 6.30 to 7.30 I go to an in-house meeting at NA.

92HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

93OFFENDER:  That is every night and if not in-house, they take a bus out to the outhouses and we go about a quarter to seven, start the program - start the NAP at 7.30 and get back about 8.30, 9 o'clock.  I try to do as many programs - as many NA as I can.

94HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Is it helping?

95OFFENDER:  Yes.  Yes.  And on Wednesday we have chapel from 4.30 up to 6 o'clock till 8 o'clock.

96HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

97OFFENDER:  And then Sunday morning we just go to church from nine until
12 o'clock.

98HIS HONOUR:  Do you have contact with your mother?

99OFFENDER:  Yes.  My mother is here in court today and my stepfather.

100HIS HONOUR:  Are you in contact with your ex-partner, or your partner?

101OFFENDER:  Yes.

102HIS HONOUR:  Yes?

103OFFENDER:  They come to the rehab every Saturday.  I can get day leave on a Saturday from 2 o'clock until 7 o'clock at night.  I can go home spend a day with my family and then come back and do a urine sample for them and then get back in me program for the week and then on the weekend do the same thing.

104HIS HONOUR:  Have you been told how long you are going to be there?

105OFFENDER:  No.  All I have been told is it is up to a two months program.

106HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

107OFFENDER:  You do five weeks induction and I have completed that.  I have gone up to Level 1.

108HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

109OFFENDER:  You do nine weeks to 12 weeks in Level 1 and then you go to
16 weeks in Level 2 and then there is 16 weeks in re-entry but re-entry is to basically get yourself a house, to get you back into the community.  I have support up there.  I have got Belmont Church who I was doing the volunteer work for.  I can go back and work.  I go to the Thursday meetings at Belmont NA.

110HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

111OFFENDER:  The major - the priest of Belmont Church, I have got his number and I talk to him on a regular basis, so I have got a lot of support up there.  I am not up there to make friends, I am up there for a change of life.

112HIS HONOUR:  When you get released are you going to have work?

113OFFENDER:  Yes.

114HIS HONOUR:  What sort of work are you going to do?

115OFFENDER:  Before I - two days before I got into Dooralong, I had a job interview at, um, Steggles chicken factory.

116HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

117OFFENDER:  But I was told them about - about going to rehab and they said well I get out reapply and see how we go.

118HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Where is that?

119OFFENDER:  Ah, in Cardiff.

120HIS HONOUR:  Right.

121OFFENDER:  But, yeah ‑ ‑ ‑

122HIS HONOUR:  Are you going to stay around there or are you going to ‑ ‑ ‑

123OFFENDER:  Yes.

124HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Mr Rose, usually people who are put on a community corrections order have to report to a particular office and that, in your case, would be the Wangaratta office.  I will make a notation on the order for the Wangaratta office Community Corrections Services that they are to check with the Dooralong Transformation Centre that you return there and then they can communicate with them about what they want you to do as far as their requirements are concerned. 

125I will just wait till the orders are signed.

126No matter what this program does for you, Mr Rose, what happens after the program is crucial.

127OFFENDER:  Yes.

128HIS HONOUR:  It is important that after that program you get a job, you are in contact or living with your family close by, that you do not associate with any of your old associates and that you get on with life.  I can guarantee that that is going to be a hard period for you once you are out of that program.  Because now you have got a structure, you have a routine to follow and you have directions and obligations to follow.  When you get out it all going to be on your head.  With your priors, if you make a mistake, a court is not going to have any options.  You are not going to do another program.  The program you are going to do is that you are going to go to gaol. 

129That simply means that the choice about that is completely yours.  If that is where you want to head, there is always going to be a bed there for you.  How old are you?

130OFFENDER:  Thirty-one.

131HIS HONOUR:  As I said before, if you want to spend the best years of your life in a cell then you can ignore everything I have said.  All right.  Mr Westmore, if you could get your client to counter sign these orders please.

132MR WESTMORE:  Yes, Your Honour.

133HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.

134Yes, thank you.  Thank you, Ms Hill.  Thank you, Mr Westmore.  You are excused.

135MS HILL:  As Your Honour pleases.

136MR WESTMORE:  As Your Honour pleases.

137HIS HONOUR:  I will just stay behind on the Bench, that is fine, you can leave.  I am waiting for another matter to reconvene.

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