Director of Public Prosecutions v Saffron

[2015] VCC 79

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-14-01623

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

AARON SAFFRON

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	4 February 2015
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Saffron
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2015] VCC 79

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 D. Hogan	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Offender	Mr K. McDonald	Von Einem Lawyers

HIS HONOUR: 

1On the evening of Saturday 10 August 2013, Christopher Burder was driving his much loved and expensive Holden ute with an acquaintance, Melissa Pett.  They stopped on the top of Tower Hill Road, Lovely Banks which overlooked the lights of Geelong. They got into the rear part of the ute under the soft tarpaulin.

2It was 2 am when you, Aaron Saffron, along with your co-accused, Indiana Duffy and Ben Quinn, drove your car up to where the ute was parked.  You three men approached the ute.  The victims, Burder and Pett, stuck their heads up from under the tarp.  Quinn took the lead and told Burder he was taking the ute.  Burder protested, understandably, and then Quinn produced a large frightening knife, holding it close to Burder's throat saying, "You don't really have a choice".

3You, along with Indiana Duffy, were standing behind Quinn and shining lights in the victims' eyes.  The victims handed over the keys and their mobile phones.  Quinn got into the ute and by intimidation forced the victims to get into the front of the ute as well.  You two men went back to your car and followed the ute.

4Quinn drove at high speed along the Anakie Road for about six kilometres.  He pulled up and told the victims to get out.  They were left on the side of the road surrounded by paddocks with no phones in the middle of the night 15 kilometres or more from Geelong.  All this reveals you men's callous behaviour and the terrifying ordeal that the victims endured.

5You drove back to an address in St Leonards where the numberplates of the ute were removed. The $30,000 ute has not been recovered.  One of the phones was sold by Quinn but ultimately it was recovered.  The next day you three men travelled by car to Perth.  Investigations led first to the arrest of Quinn on 3 October 2013.  He made admissions.  He pleaded guilty early to

6

two charges of armed robbery and two charges of reckless driving of a car placing another in danger of serious injury.  He was sentenced by

Judge Hogan on 30 July 2014 and I have read that sentence and the orders that she made in respect of Mr Quinn.

7

Mr Duffy was arrested on 3 December 2013.  He denied any involvement.  You, Mr Saffron, were arrested in Darwin on 29 April 2014.  You made full admissions and agreed to make a statement implicating your co-accused.  Oddly, given that scenario, you, Mr Saffron, ran a contested committal on

21 November 2014. 

8You thereafter speedily resolved the matter.  Mr Duffy ultimately pleaded guilty to an armed robbery as well, once he learnt of your inculpatory statement. 

9This offending was serious and, as I have said, terrifying with aspects of utter disdain for the victims.  It is shameful conduct.  However, as will become clear, it is yet another example of dreadful violent behaviour by young men who have not committed crimes of this magnitude before and who were, at the time, deep in the grip of an addiction to ice.  As the courts have been forced to say regularly in recent times, ice is a scourge, and its effects are devastating to many ordinary citizens as they become victims, and in many cases devastating to the accused and the family of the accused as well.  All that is evident in this case. 

10The ordeal of the victims and its lasting consequences was made plain in the victim impact statement of Mr Burder.  He said as to the consequences he has fear and is on edge in public places.  He was concerned that the accused men or you, accused man, had his ID and is fearful you might come to his address.  He does not trust people and is not as social.  He stays at home.  He has a reaction to himself that he should not have to have, and that is, he felt anger towards himself because he feels he could have done more at the time of the crime.  He was facing a knife.  He should not be made to face a knife and then feel bad because he did not do more about it at the time.  He has also suffered financially because his ute, brand new, was stolen.  He had to get an older one.  He feels depressed most of the time. 

11You, Mr Saffron, are now 24.  You were 22 at the time of your offending.  You are a young man who has, despite this grave crime, much to be said on your behalf.  Your biological father has played no role in your life, your parents separating when you were two.  Your efforts to reconnect with him when you were 20 were rejected.  You have remained with your mother, a psychologist by profession working for the Department of Human Services in the disability services area. 

12You were also very fortunate in that your mother re-partnered when you were still very young and your stepfather, Mr Tony Maher, has been a caring and steady father figure throughout your life.  He is a manager at the Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-op in Geelong.  I heard his impressive evidence at the plea.  Your parents remain supportive of you, though utterly devastated at what you have done.  However, beyond just support of you, they have gone to significant effort and expense to ensure you got onto a path of rehabilitation and put drugs behind you.  To your credit, you have embraced this course.

13I pause at this moment to say the obvious to you, Mr Saffron:  Do not let your parents down again.  Show character and do not falter and fall back into drug use. 

14You reached year 11 at school and thereafter completed an apprenticeship as a plumber.  You have a very good work history and that is to your credit.  You have two truly minor matters before the Magistrates' Court when you were 20.  Both resulted in without conviction penalties and have no relevance in my sentencing considerations. 

15

Thus, with your stable family circumstances, your education, your training in the profession of a plumber and your work history, you were, on all accounts, a decent young man with a bright future.  You were in a relationship at 18.  Your partner fell pregnant and at too early an age, you were a parent.  Although the relationship ended, you have remained supportive of your

ex-partner and your young daughter.  This is to your credit. 

16A positive aspect of your life was your commitment and involvement in a rugby club in Geelong.  However, in the context of your relationship deteriorating, your involvement or use of ice commenced and escalated.  The use of ice and your involvement with this drug saw you banned from the rugby club. 

17Away from your more decent friends at the rugby club, you became more involved with other drug users.  Your relationship came to an end.  You returned to your parents' home, but you were well and truly in the grip of ice.  You became psychological distraught, making multiple suicide attempts.  Your parents were very concerned for you, but you were unable to put an end to using ice. 

18You met the two co-accused men with more troubling criminal histories than you.  You considered they had access to cheaper and better ice and thus you drove them around in your car, hoping, it seems, for more and cheaper ice.  Thus, under the influence of ice, you were part of the frightening events of 13 August 2013. 

19After the events of August 2013, you immediately went to Perth.  Shortly thereafter, you returned to Geelong.  There you confessed to your parents the extent of your drug problem.  Your stepfather and mother took steps and found dedicated drug rehabilitation facilities in circumstances outside Alice Springs.  You were accepted into this drug rehabilitation facility, known as BushMob, and went there in September 2013.  The report I read from the facility manager, Kerri Diamond, was very favourable.  After initial problems with anger while detoxing from drug use, you settled and gained insight into the consequences of drug use and the practical methods that should be adopted to avoid situations likely to lead to relapse. 

20You moved from BushMob in Alice Springs or outside Alice Springs to Darwin.  You settled well there, forming a new relationship and gaining employment, first as a gas plumber, and now you have better prospects, I am told, of a permanent job as a roof plumber.  You have resumed the sort of promising life you had before you became addicted to ice. 

21Much of what I have outlined has come from the very helpful report of the experienced forensic psychologist, Mr Ian Joblin.  Mr Joblin concludes his report by saying: 

"The present situation in my opinion is one to his credit.  Mr Saffron, having been able to overcome difficulties with amphetamine and remove himself from the drug environment in Geelong by going to Darwin.  Mr Saffron has been encouraged by his parents to remain drug free, and if that means he should return to Darwin, then he will stay there.  He has sufficient insight and intelligence to recognise the need to remain well free of the drug environment in Geelong, and he presented with a strong ambition to achieve that goal.  That, in my opinion, is to his credit and must continue". 

22

Ordinarily, Mr Saffron, notwithstanding such significant steps in rehabilitation and with the likely prospect of permanent reform, a period of imprisonment would be well on the cards for an offence of this kind, even for a young and virtually first time offender.  The weight of a plea of guilty, the genuine remorse, as is evidenced here, and all the other significant catalogue of mitigatory matters you have, would, in the end, have had the effect of shortening the sentence.  Here, however, one important factor tips the balance.  You cooperated fully with the police and made a confessional statement implicating your co-offenders.  The effect of this was to cause

Mr Duffy to also plead guilty.  The mitigatory value of such cooperation is significant.  It changes things such that a non-custodial sentence is well open.  Also, the guideline judgment in recent times that is subsequent to the plea in Geelong, in the matter of Bolton and others, gives me confidence that I can impose a community corrections order for this type of offending for you as the offender. 

23I had you assessed for a community corrections order and you are suitable.  Importantly, the Northern Territory authorities are willing and able to take you on immediately.  Unfortunately, the punitive condition of unpaid work cannot be transferred to the Northern Territory. 

24Prosecution, in a very fair analysis of this case, does not oppose the community corrections order that was urged by your counsel in his comprehensive plea.  The only matter that gave rise to concern for the prosecution was that there would be no unpaid work or none could be ordered.  I, likewise, am concerned about this aspect of the sentencing option.  However, the punitive aspect of my sentence can, in my view, be met to a degree by monetary penalty or a fine. 

25

Necessarily, the amount of the fine will need to take into account your financial circumstances.  You do not have a lot of money and have expenses in the Northern Territory and child support as well.  You have had your car stolen recently yourself and that may give rise to unexpected expenses.  You will of course appreciate now, from your own experience, a little of what

Mr Burder had to put up with. 

26In my view, taking into account the need for denunciation of this crime and general deterrence, also taking into account your youth, your lack of prior history and your positive moves to reform, as well as parity or, more accurately, disparity with the sentence imposed on Mr Quinn, in the end, a community corrections order is a just and appropriate penalty. 

27Can you please stand, Mr Saffron. 

28For committing the crime, Charge 1, of armed robbery, you are convicted and I order that you undertake or be placed on a community corrections order which will last for two years and six months. What I propose is that there be conditions on that community corrections order that are specific to you. Those conditions are that you undergo treatment and rehabilitation for drug addiction or use, and that you undergo treatment and rehabilitation for your mental health, and that you be under supervision. Those matters are pursuant to ss.48D, 3A, 3E and s.48E of the Victorian Sentencing Act.

29In addition, you are convicted and fined $1800.  There will be a stay of three months on the payment of that time, in which time if you wish to make or arrange for instalments to be paid, that will be allowed. 

30Had you pleaded not guilty to this offence and been found guilty of it, I would have imposed a sentence of two years with a non-parole period of 15 months.

31The prosecution seeks orders that you provide a forensic sample.  I have considered that application and I intend to grant it.  I do so because the seriousness of the offence, you do not stand in the way of it, and it is in the interests of justice that a forensic sample is taken from you.  Mr Saffron, to provide that sample there will need to be a process that you involve yourself in.  Essentially it comes down to that you will have to go to a police station that is able to take from you a swab from your mouth if that is the process in the Northern Territory or wherever it is.  But whatever process they undertake, you have to cooperate with them.  If you do not cooperate with them, they are authorised to use reasonable force for the taking of that sample.  The way forward, of course, is to do what you told your barrister, which is you do not stand in the way of it. 

32There are other orders sought.  They relate to compensation or restitution of Mr Burder's financial position.  I just need documents about that.  Are they here, Ms Hogan? 

33MS HOGAN:  They are, Your Honour. 

34HIS HONOUR:  Thank you. 

35MS HOGAN:  Just one issue in relation to the forensic sample, Your Honour.  It usually is in Victoria that it is taken.

36HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

37MS HOGAN:  But I note that it is only to be taken during the period of four weeks commencing 28 days after the date of sentence. 

38HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

39MS HOGAN:  So I am just wondering which police station I should put in, whether it be Geelong or - --

40HIS HONOUR:  Put in Geelong.  Mr Saffron has got connections to Geelong.  He has got a child in Geelong, he has got parents in Geelong.  He has to come down at the expense of him or someone to provide the sample to the Geelong Police Station within the period of time he has to do it. 

41OFFENDER:  I'll have to go there, Your Honour, after this, for my community corrections anyway.  So ‑ ‑ ‑

42HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Unfortunately, though, you just cannot wander into the police station today and say, "Take a sample".

43OFFENDER:  Okay. 

44HIS HONOUR:  Because the law is that you have got to have an opportunity to think it all through, and if you wish to lodge an appeal against anything that I have done, it just is a stay on all those orders; do you follow?  It just holds them in abeyance.  No one at the police station necessarily will be ready to take your sample.  But I do not stand in the way of a practical outcome, and if they are able to take it and you are not going to worry about the 28 day period, get it done. 

45The order that I have signed, Mr Saffron, is that you pay Mr Burder the sum of $1725.  I make that order because I am satisfied that he suffered loss.  As is required by the law, oddly, when you are required to make such a payment, the order that I make includes the address of the complainant.  Why that still remains the law, I am confounded.  Are you able to redact the forms so that we do not have his personal address provided to someone when he expresses concern?

46MS HOGAN:  Yes.  Sorry, Your Honour, I did not check that.  Usually it is filed as a separate document.  So I am sorry, Your Honour.  I could have that ‑ ‑ ‑

47HIS HONOUR:  I will make the order. 

48MS HOGAN:  Yes.

49HIS HONOUR:  I will not authenticate or finalise it right now if you provide me with a copy of that or another order which you say has got or does not have the personal address of Mr Burder. 

50MS HOGAN:  Yes.  Is Your Honour content for me to email that to Your Honour's associate? 

51HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Are you content with all of that? 

52MR McDONALD:  Indeed, Your Honour. 

53HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  So you owe Mr Burder $1725.  The decent thing to do would be repay him.  You can be seated now, Mr Saffron. 

54I have signed those orders.  Is there anything else required?  We now have printed the community corrections order.  Mr Saffron, remain seated, but I indicated to you I was placing you on a community corrections order that is two and a half years or 30 months and there were special conditions that apply to you.  I need to make clear to you that there are conditions that apply to everyone who is on a community corrections order, and they are, you must not commit another offence for which you could be imprisoned during the time that the order is enforced, that is for the next 30 months.  That is an offence in Northern Territory, and if you do commit another offence, then you will be brought back before me and the significant mercy and leniency that has been afforded to you will not be repeated.  You should consider almost every offence you can think of is one for which you could be imprisoned.  Whether a magistrate in the Northern Territory would do that, if you stole a can of drink from the service station, it may not get imprisonment, but it would be an offence punishable by imprisonment, would breach my order, and that would be you back here to be resentenced for the armed robbery.  The way through it, of course, Mr Saffron, is never commit another offence at all, whether during the course of this order or ever. 

55You must comply with any obligation or requirement there is imposed by regulation 17 of the Sentencing Act.  I am told that is effectively you have got to submit to having your photograph taken like identification of you by the Office of Corrections.  So they might take a photograph of you so it is sent up to the Northern Territory.  You must report to and receive visits from the Office of Corrections.  You must report to the Community Corrections Centre within two clear working days.  That is down at Geelong and they will set you up for another report in the Northern Territory.  You must let the Community Corrections Officers, that is in the Northern Territory, know within two clear working days if you are changing your address or your job.  You have just got to keep them informed of everything that is happening.  You cannot leave Victoria without first getting permission to do so from the Office of Corrections.  You will be given that permission, I understand, to go to the Northern Territory.  But just keep them informed.  And you must obey all lawful instructions from the Office of Corrections, both here in Victoria and the Northern Territory.  Just do what they ask you to do.  Cooperate. 

56The condition you do not leave Victoria without first getting permission to do so, I do not know how that applies to the Northern Territory, but the practicalities of it are to tell them when you are leaving.  So if you are coming back to Victoria for a visit, tell them.  If they do not know where you are, they will breach you, you will be back before me and you will be making excuses for things you could have sorted out well in advance. 

57As I said to you, you will be under supervision of the Community Corrections Office for 30 months and you must undergo assessment and treatment including testing for drug abuse or dependency as directed.  You must undergo mental health assessments and treatment as directed by the Office of Corrections.  If you consent to the order being made, sign this, I will sign it and that will bring the matter to an end.  Just come out of the ‑ ‑ ‑

58MR McDONALD:  Can I excused from the Bar table, Your Honour?

59HIS HONOUR:  Certainly, yes. 

60Mr Saffron, above where you've signed it says, "I understand the effect and conditions of this order and consent to it being made".  So sign that, you will get a copy.  As I said, if you do not do this order or breach it in any way, I will just remind you of what you signed and said you would do it.  I am unlikely to forget this case, given how it has flowed and your ending up in the Northern Territory.  That is not common.  I might forget some cases.  So if you are back before me in the next 30 months, there is probably only one outcome, one place that you will go.  Do you follow?  Do not be distracted by other things.  I am talking to you about if you do breach the order in any way you are likely to go to prison.  That is not a place you want to go.  Do you follow?

61OFFENDER:  Yeah.

62HIS HONOUR:  Is there anything further? 

63MR McDONALD:  No.  Thank you, Your Honour.

64HIS HONOUR:  I thank counsel for their civil assistance and assistance in respect of Mr Duffy.  Thank you.

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