Director of Public Prosecutions v Rowntree

[2025] VCC 1480

Seual

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

Case No. CR-24-01972

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS (CTH)

v

HAILEY ROWNTREE

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE BRECKWEG
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	18 September 2025
DATE OF SENTENCE:	10 October 2025
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Rowntree
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2025] VCC 1480

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW - SENTENCING

Catchwords:              Dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception – attempt to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception - no criminal record – Verdins principles; Bugmy principles - significant attempts to rehabilitate

Legislation Cited:      Criminal Code (Cth); Crimes Act 1914 (Cth)

Cases Cited:Phillips v DPP(Cth) [2024] VSCA 13; Tran v The Queen [2021] VSCA 292; Keefe v The Queen [2014] VSCA 201; R v Jones (2010) 76 ATR 249; R v Richard [2011] NSWSC 866; R v De Leeuw [2015] NSWCCA 183

Sentence:                  Convicted and sentenced to total effective sentence of 14 months imprisonment, to be released forthwith on a recognisance release order to be of good behaviour for 18 months and conditions; reparation order; 6AAA declaration-18 months imprisonment, with 3 months to be served before being released on a recognisance order in the sum of $1000 to be of good behaviour for two years.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the CDPP	Mr J Regan	Solicitor for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms D Dempsey	Victoria Legal Aid

HER HONOUR:

1Hailey Rowntree, you have pleaded guilty to:

a)one charge of obtaining a financial advantage by deception contrary to s134.2(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth); and

b)one charge of attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception contrary to ss11.1 and 134.2(1) of the Criminal Code (Cth).

2Each offence carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.

3The facts of your offending are set out in the Summary of Prosecution Opening dated 25 February 2025 (Exhibit A on the plea), and these were not in dispute.

4Between 9 February 2022 and 18 May 2022, you lodged five monthly Business Activity Statements (BAS) with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) seeking to claim a Goods and Services Tax (GST) refund. You falsely asserted that you were operating a business, that the business had incurred GST on purchases, and that you were entitled to GST refunds. Each BAS was false as you were not running a business or incurring GST through purchases.

5As a result of your claims, between 18 February and 26 May 2022 the ATO paid you five refunds totalling $111,000 to which you were not entitled (Charge 1 - obtaining a financial advantage by deception).

6In June 2022, the ATO and the Australian Business Register discovered the fraud and cancelled your ABN and your registration for GST. You were notified of those cancellations by letter and were also notified that you owed the ATO $111,000.

7Despite this, on 15 July 2022, you submitted a further false BAS covering the month of December 2021. In that BAS you claimed a $10,000 refund by falsely asserting that you were operating a business, and the business had incurred GST on $132,000 in purchases. This claim was never paid by the ATO (Charge 2 – attempting to obtain a financial advantage).

Sentencing Principles

8I have outlined the principles relevant to sentencing for taxation fraud and I will not repeat those here. 

9I have also had regard to the matters applicable in sentencing for Commonwealth offences. In particular, s17A of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth (the Act) provides that a sentence of imprisonment must only be imposed if the court is satisfied that 'no other sentence is appropriate in all the circumstances of the case'. Section 16A(1) of the Act provides that a court must impose a sentence or an order that is of an appropriate severity in all the circumstances of the offending and s16A(2) sets out a non-exhaustive list of factors that must be taken into account as far as these are relevant and known to the Court. I have had regard to the following factors set out in s16A(2):

16A(2)(a)  Nature and circumstances of the offence

10Yours was serious offending and your counsel accepted that a term of imprisonment was appropriate.

11Charge 1 was a 'rolled up' charge encompassing five separate acts of dishonesty. Because the charge reflected many instances of offending, each capable of constituting a separate offence, the criminality involved in the charge is greater than with a charge involving only one episode of criminal conduct.[1]

[1] R v Richard [2011] NSWSC 866, at [65(f)]; R v De Leeuw [2015] NSWCCA 183, [116].

12Charge 2 concerned a further false BAS you lodged seeking a refund of $10,000 which was not paid. The criminality of this charge is increased in my view because you lodged the false application just weeks after you had been advised by the ATO that your offending had been detected and you were required to repay the money you had dishonestly obtained.

13You obtained $111,000 in refunds and attempted to obtain a further $10,000. These are not insignificant sums.

14It is not the case that your offending was unplanned, sporadic or impulsive. You lodged six individual BAS over a five-month period. Each false BAS needed to be completed with specific details of your purported business purchases, GST payable on these and the refund sought.

15You obviously knew the information you provided was false as you were never operating a business and that the moneys paid to you were based entirely on false information that you were.

16Whilst I accept that you offended when your mental state was precarious, your offending was for personal gain as opposed to entirely for need. You purchased a new car, toys for the children, gave money to others and otherwise spent some of the proceeds on purchasing drugs to feed the drug habit of yourself and your partner. I do not consider however that you offended for greed.

17I accept that your offending falls towards the lower end of offending of this nature given it was over a relatively short duration and the amount you obtained was not as significant as seen in many other cases. Further, your offending was unsophisticated in the sense that you used your own name and bank accounts, and you did not use any false documents in the offending. You also needed logistical assistance from others, and your offending did not involve a breach of trust such as occurring in an employment setting.  

18I accept your counsel's submission that you were using methamphetamine during the period of the offending and were addicted to this drug. Of course, this self-induced drug use does not provide an excuse for your offending, but it does at least explain why, for instance, you submitted another false BAS and made a claim even after you were advised you had been caught.

16A(2)(g) Plea of guilty

19You pleaded guilty to the charge at the first available opportunity. Your plea warrants a clear reduction in the sentence to be imposed to reflect its utilitarian value in saving the community the time and expense of a trial and witnesses from having to give evidence, and to reflect its demonstration of acceptance of responsibility, willingness to facilitate the course of justice and remorse.

20I also accept that you have demonstrated some remorse over and above that evidenced by your plea alone. You told Dr Zimmerman that you were sorry for stealing money from taxpayers and you wrote a letter of apology to the court in which you expressed your shame, regret and remorse for your offending and accepted full responsibility for your actions. You have agreed to the making of a reparation order.

16A(2)(j) Specific Deterrence

16A(2)(k) Need for Adequate Punishment

21I have had regard to the need to deter you personally from further offending of this type, although I moderate the weight to be given to this for reasons I will outline, and have also factored in the need to ensure you are adequately punished for your offending. 

16A(2)(ja) General Deterrence

22As noted above, general deterrence is a primary sentencing consideration for offending of this nature. In your case, general deterrence may be modified to a degree to reflect the application of Verdins and/or Bugmy principles.

16A(2)(m) Character, antecedents, age, means and physical or mental condition

23You are 28 years of age and were 25 at the time of your offending. You are an only child and your parents separated when you were young. You have an older half-sister and three younger half siblings through your mother and a younger brother through your father. Your father died from lung cancer in December 2024 aged only 52.

24You attended three different primary schools due to family breakdown and your mother re-partnering. You did not enjoy high school as you were bullied and ultimately you left school in Year 9. You enrolled in a Certificate III and IV in mental health and child, youth and families but have struggled to complete it. To your credit you have recently enrolled in a Certificate III in Cleaning Operations at the MCI Institute and you hope to one day open your own cleaning business.

25You have five children from three significant relationships. You met your first partner Ben when you were 18 and had your first child Ayla when you were 19 and your second child Addilyn in October 2017. You experienced symptoms consistent with post-natal depression after both births, and you were formally diagnosed with this condition in 2017. You met your ex-partner Grant after the birth of Addilyn, but that relationship was tainted by domestic violence and drug use, so you gave the care of your daughters to Ben. Both girls continue to live with Ben, and you have unrestricted access to them on a regular basis.

26You gave birth to your third child, Kaliah-Rose in February 2019. When she was six months old you agreed to give the care of Kaliah-Rose to Grant's mother, Beverly due to involvement from child protection due to the family violence you were experiencing at the time. Your fourth child Chayse was born in August 2021 at a time when your ex-partner Grant was using methamphetamines regularly and you were suffering from poor mental health. You both agreed that Chayse should also be placed in the care of Beverly. Despite your relationship with Grant ending in early 2022, both children continue to live with Beverly. You have regular unrestricted contact and phone calls.

27You began a relationship with your current partner, Trai in 2022 and you had a son Taite in 2022. There was further child protection involvement, and Taite was placed in Beverly's care after birth. Taite was returned to your care when he was around two weeks old after you participated in a family preservation and reunification program and he has remained in your care since. You currently reside with Taite who is now two and a half, your partner, his father and your stepson. You are hoping to have Chayse reside with you for at least some of the week in the future.

28You have experienced very considerable hardship and trauma in your life. You have had several periods of employment in low skilled jobs and have had to work as a sex worker to support yourself and ex-partners. You are currently receiving parenting payments and have limited capacity to repay your debt. You were the victim of abuse at the age of seven, which understandably had a lasting effect on both your physical and mental health. You also report a further assault in 2014 when you were raped by someone known to you. This matter was not formally reported.  It is following the trauma you suffered as a child that you were formally diagnosed as suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.

29Prior to the offending you were undertaking a period of counselling but struggled to continue with it due to factors including ongoing family violence. You were not receiving any treatment at the time of the offending. You have experienced episodes of suicidal ideation and have made multiple attempts to take your own life. You commenced taking antidepressant medication in early 2022 after being referred to CAT clinicians by your SECASA worker.

30You have a long history of drug misuse, and you were using methamphetamine almost daily during 2021 and during the period of the offending. You first used cannabis at 13 and still use this drug but, importantly, you have not used methamphetamine since August 2022. The urine samples you were required to provide to child protection to have Taite remain in your care, have been consistently clean.

31I have had regard to the report of Dr Zimmerman who confirmed a diagnosis of PTSD arising from your assault as a child aged seven. You made a statement to police and engaged in counselling at age nine. You were approached about the assault when you were 24 after another victim came forward and you experienced re-traumatisation and had further counselling after having to revisit your interview made as a child.

32Your childhood assault affected your ability to parent your own children and cope with the demands of motherhood. You also experienced neglect, physical and emotional abuse as a child. You experienced depression and anxiety from adolescence and you were diagnosed with post-partum depression after the birth of your first daughter and have had repeated episodes after the birth of your other children. You engaged in significant drug use as a teenager and adult.

33Dr Zimmerman concluded that in the lead up to and at the time of your offending in February 2022 you were experiencing the effects of untreated post-partum depression following the birth of Chayse, PTSD symptoms, and the breakdown of a relationship which had involved family violence. You were also using drugs. You were admitted to hospital in February 2022 after the CAT team had referred you for a mental state assessment in the context of you demonstrating suicidal ideation. Dr Zimmerman opined that these factors combined to impair your judgment, increase your level of recklessness and to reduce your ability to logically or rationally contemplate your behaviour. Your counsel submitted that these matters give rise to limbs 1, 3 and 4, of Verdins such that your moral culpability for the offending is reduced as is the weight to be given to general and specific deterrence. The prosecution agreed albeit argued that no or only a very minimal reduction should be given to the weight to be afforded general deterrence.

34I accept your counsel's submission. You were clearly under significant mental challenges in the lead up to and at the time of offending, and whilst it is difficult to disentangle these from the effects of significant drug use, in my view there is a realistic causal connection established between your mental condition – even without drug use - and the offending such that Verdins limbs 1, 3 and 4 apply. There was also significant corroborative collateral material to support the matters relied on by Dr Zimmerman.

35In any event and bearing in mind the need to avoid double crediting, I consider that your childhood experiences of maltreatment, neglect, trauma and childhood assault were of such moment that the principles in Bugmy would apply in a general sense such that your moral culpability and the weight to be given to general deterrence could readily be reduced on that basis alone.

36I accept that Verdins limbs 5 and 6 have applicability based on Dr Zimmerman's conclusions that your depressive symptoms are at risk of deteriorating which includes possible re-emergence of suicidal ideation and your PTSD (which is in remission) and depression would make prison more onerous for you than any other prisoner without these conditions.

37I have had regard to a character reference from Mr Daniel Summerscales the grandfather of your son Taite and father of your partner. He wrote that you had struggled with drug abuse but have now turned your life around by giving up drugs, undertaking study and focussing on caring for your children including your stepchild. He said that you have grown into a more mature and responsible person since the offending and are trying to make a better life for yourself and your family.

16A(2)(n) Prospects of rehabilitation

38You have no criminal history and nothing pending. You ceased using methamphetamine and other hard drugs in August 2022 and removed yourself from people you were then associating with. This appears to have been a turning point in your life. You are living a stable lifestyle with your young son, your partner and your stepson and your partner's father. You wish to undertake a cleaning course. I consider being reunited with your son and your desire for a stable family life to be a very strong motivator for you to stay off drugs and a protective factor in assessing your risk of reoffending. Whilst your prospects of rehabilitation are very much contingent on you remaining abstinent from drug use, you have now been drug-free for more than three years, you are living with your infant son, you have ambitions, and I consider your prospects of rehabilitation to be very good.

39The delay in the time between the offending and being charged and then being charged and sentencing are also matters I have had regard to. During the delay you have achieved a good degree of rehabilitation. You have also had this matter hanging over your head and no doubt causing you anxiety as to when you would be charged and whether you would be imprisoned.

16A(2)(p) Family hardship

40I accept that your son Taite would suffer hardship if you were to be imprisoned. Whilst he is still very young at two and a half you are his mother, he lives with you, and he would very much notice and feel your absence.

Sentencing submissions

41The prosecution submitted, and your counsel did not disagree, that a term of imprisonment was required given the seriousness of your offending and based on intermediate appellate decisions for offending of this type. Your counsel argued however that the needs of general and specific deterrence and punishment could still be met with the imposition of a term of imprisonment which saw you released forthwith on conditions including that you be of good behaviour. It was also submitted and the prosecution accepted, that the mitigating factors you relied upon were so powerful that it was open for you to be released on a recognisance without having to serve any period of the sentence of imprisonment.

42I agree. When I synthesise the objective seriousness of the offending and the applicable sentencing principles with your strong mitigating factors, most notably the hardship that would be suffered by your son if you were imprisoned, your PTSD, the application of Verdins limbs 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and the delay since the offending, it is open to release you immediately. You have achieved considerable rehabilitation since August 2022 when you ceased using drugs, and it would be counterproductive for you to have to serve any part of the term of imprisonment. You would also endure much personal hardship if you were separated from your son who you formed a considerable bond with which was not possible previously due to your postnatal depression.

43The needs of the community and your son are best served if you can continue your rehabilitative journey. The order that I will impose will still act as a deterrent as you can be resentenced for this offending if you fail to comply with the order to be of good behaviour. The order will also facilitate continued treatment for drug use and assessment and treatment, if necessary, for mental health issues. You will also be supervised adding a further protective element.  

Totality and cumulation/concurrency

44Bearing in mind the principles of totality and proportionality, I consider there should be a degree of modest cumulation between the sentences imposed. Whilst the offending can be seen to represent a course of conduct with the two charges separated only because you were not paid in relation to the fraudulent BAS claim in Charge 2, as I noted earlier, you submitted the claim the subject of Charge 2 when you were on notice that your fraud had been detected. In my view this increases the seriousness of the offence, and it requires separate punishment.

Comparative sentences

45I was provided with a schedule containing several intermediate appellate sentences. I have had regard to the sentences bearing in mind that they provide a yardstick or illustration of the available sentences rather than being a definitive statement of the appropriate sentence. Each case must be assessed on its own facts and circumstances. 

Sentence

46Ms Rowntree, please stand. On Charge 1, you are convicted and sentenced to twelve months imprisonment. The sentence commences today 10 October 2025.

47On Charge 2, you are convicted and sentenced to three months' imprisonment. I direct that that sentence commences one month before the expiration of the sentence on Charge 1 (i.e., on 10/9/26). This results in a total effective sentence of 14 months' imprisonment.

48I order that you be released immediately pursuant to s 20(1)(b) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) upon entering a recognisance in the sum of $500 to be of good behaviour for 18 months. You do not have to pay that $500 unless you breach the order, so do not worry about having to come up with $500 on the spot.

49

Following the plea hearing I was advised by Counsel for the prosecution that Community Correctional Services (CCS) would be willing to supervise you if conditions in addition to good behaviour were placed on your Recognisance Release Order (RRO). They also advised that whilst ordinarily CCS would conduct a pre-sentence assessment to consider your risk and recommend conditions that should be attached to any RRO, an assessment is not a

pre-condition of monitoring and in your case, they have agreed to supervise you based on the materials that they have received and reviewed. I am grateful to the prosecution for making these enquiries.

50In those circumstances, I attach the following additional conditions to the Recognisance condition to having to be of good behaviour:

a)You ae to be subject to the supervision of a probation officer (Deputy Commissioner, Community Correctional Services or his or her nominee) for a period of 18 months; and

b)You are to obey all reasonable directions of the probation officer (Deputy Commissioner, Community Correctional Services or his or her nominee); and

c)Not travel interstate or overseas without the permission of the probation officer or his or her nominee); and

d)You are to undertake assessment for, and if required, undertake programs directed at mental health and/or drug use that the probation officer reasonably directs; and

e)You are to report to the Lilydale Community Corrections Centre within two clear working days of the date of this order; and

f)To report to, and receive visits from, a Community Corrections officer or officers; and

g)To notify an officer at the specified Community Corrections Centre of any change of address or employment within two clear working days after the change.

51Pursuant to s6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), but for your plea of guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment and ordered that you serve three months of the sentence before being released by recognisance in the sum of $1,000 to be of good behaviour for two years.

52I order pursuant to s21B of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), that you pay reparation in the sum of $111,000 to the Commonwealth of Australia.

53You can have a seat.  So Ms Rowntree, as we discussed when we were last together for your plea hearing, you are not going to gaol for this.  You have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment, but as long as you abide by the conditions, most importantly not to reoffend, then you have to be on the order for 18 months and you will not need to go into custody. 

54HER HONOUR:  Thank you very much, Mr Regan. Ms Dempsey thank you so much and your instructor for all of your assistance, and Ms Rowntree, all I can say is, I wish you the very best of luck and just keep doing what you are doing.

55OFFENDER:  Thank you.

56HER HONOUR:  I am sure you will just have the most wonderful life if you do.

57OFFENDER:  Thank you.

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