Director of Public Prosecutions v Scott, Aaron James
[2012] VCC 1696
•26 October 2012
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-12-01644
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| AARON JAMES SCOTT |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE M.P. BOURKE | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | ||
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 26 October 2012 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Scott, Aaron James | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2012] VCC 1696 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr P. Pickering | |
| For the Accused | Mr S. Payne |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Aaron James Scott, you are to be sentenced for one count of armed robbery. The maximum sentence is 25 years' imprisonment.
2 You pleaded guilty before me today. When interviewed by police on 26 June, eight days after the offence, you made a full confession and expressed remorse. You co-operated in identifying to police the weapon you had used. Committal went by hand-up brief and you pleaded guilty in the Magistrates' Court.
3 The matter has come before me four months after the offending. That is very quickly indeed.
4 You receive the benefit of your plea of guilty and a high level of co-operation, both from a very stage. I accept that you are remorseful.
5 At the plea hearing, which ran today, Mr Pickering for the Crown tendered a written Crown opening. Mr Payne, for you, tendered the psychological reports of Aaron Cunningham, dated 11 July 2011 and 22 October 2012, and CISP Bail Program reports relating to the bail period leading up to an earlier sentence in November 2011.
6 On 18 June of this year you entered the Erotique adult store in Melton armed with a kitchen knife and robbed the female attendant, Jodie Parker. You stole $425 in cash and cachets of a substance called synthetic cannabis or incense. Mr Pickering explained the nature and effect of it. You had become dependent on that substance in your attempts to cease using illegal drugs, cannabis and methylamphetamine in the form known as "ice."
7 Although you were disguised Jodie Parker recognised you, including by your voice. You had been a regular customer of the store and had in fact supplied your mobile number. That led to your arrest.
8 In this case I accept the description that it was a crime born of desperation and one almost fated to detection. You were living in a Rockbank caravan park, separately from your partner and reliant on Centrelink benefits. You had no money and a drug or substance dependence. You told the police you had not eaten for some days.
9 Jodie Parker has chosen not to make a Victim Impact Statement.
10 You are a 32 year old man, presently in remand custody at the Melbourne Remand Centre. You have served pre-sentence detention of 123 days.
11 You come from a supportive family but because of your offending are now isolated from them. You were a talented sportsman and at 15 went to the Institute of Sport in Canberra as part of the Australian softball squad. That career was frustrated by your fathering of a child to a 19 year old young woman, also involved in that sport. You began a relationship which failed and had two sons.
12 You also began using drugs, cannabis and then amphetamines. In your late 20s you began using "ice."
13 You have a third child, a daughter, with another woman. That relationship also ended. You do not see any of your three children. They are now aged 17,16 and seven years. Your present partner has children. They are not yours. She is your only support in prison. Ms Wylie has been a drug user but is presently drug free. You plan to marry.
14 You are also drug free. Mr Payne pointed to clean drug screen testing at the Melbourne Remand Centre.
15 Drug use threatens to ruin your life. It has impacted upon your personal life and working life. You were usefully employed over a number of years, for example, as a labourer, chef and drainer. You have several work machinery licences in the construction industry. You have not worked since 2010 because of amphetamine use.
16 Your criminal record states four court appearances between October 1999 and November 2011. Three appearances relate to the period 2008 to 2011. They entail violence and drug offending. On 15 November 2011 you received an eight month sentence, suspended for two years. Some of that offending was domestic violence against your present partner. You were heavily using methylamphetamine. This offending, the offending before me, breaches that suspended sentence and proceedings for that will be heard in the Magistrates' Court. The matter of totality was raised here and discussed with counsel. The agreed position is that the application of that principle must be made by the Magistrates' Court. That discussion and my comments will be brought to the attention of the sentencing magistrate.
17 This was serious offending and attracts a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment. As also raised with counsel, the sentencing considerations of deterrence, both specific and general, and denunciation are relevant and important. Your drug dependence and history does not in any significant way reduce your moral culpability. The just and proportionate punishment must be imprisonment of some substantial length.
18 However, there are also relevant mitigating matters. I find particularly important your plea of guilty and the very high level of your co-operation in the proceedings. Your personal circumstances, including isolation from your family and children, should attract some sympathy. I accept that that isolation makes imprisonment more difficult for you than others. I do not discount your prospects for rehabilitation. That is dependent upon your ability to reform from drug use. Your efforts in late 2011, under the CISP bail program, show a capacity to do that. If you do so you present as a competent man who is capable of a successful working life.
19 Mr Pickering in a submission reflecting the serious adverse aspects, but also, in my view, properly weighted recognition of mitigating factors, put a sentencing range. Mr Payne, again properly in my view, did not argue against it. I shall sentence you toward the bottom of that range. That is where I see the proper sentence to be after consideration of the relevant competing factors.
20 Stand up please.
21 I sentence you as follows: on one count of armed robbery you are sentenced to imprisonment for two years and three months. I set a minimum term before eligibility for parole of 18 months. I declare under s.18, 123 days of pre-sentence detention. Had you not pleaded guilty, I indicate this: that I would have imposed after a trial a sentence of five years with a minimum period of three years. That reflects the importance in this case I see in your co-operation.
22 Take a seat for a moment please.
23 I am asked to make an order in relation to compensation to Erotique adult centre in the sum of $605. That is not opposed and I am going to sign that order now.
24 I am also asked to make an order that the forensic sample, saliva I would imagine, that was taken from you, or has been taken from you in the past - probably, gentlemen, when he was interviewed for these matters.
25 COUNSEL: Yes, Your Honour.
26 HIS HONOUR: That that be retained for the purpose of placement in the database. That is not opposed. The reasons I am making the order are the seriousness of this offending, your prior history. I see the order as in the public interest. Such material is potentially useful in the investigation of crimes such as those crimes that you have committed over time. I will sign that order now.
27 I am also asked to make an order disposing of the knife, the zip-lock bag and the empty packets of synthetic cannabis that were taken from you when the police raided your caravan. I will sign that order now.
28 Is that everything I have to do?
29 COUNSEL: Yes, Your Honour.
30 HIS HONOUR: Thank you for your assistance today, gentlemen. It was a competently and efficiently run proceeding, which isn't always the case. I wish you the best when you do get out of prison but it's up to you I think. It's sad to see somebody of ability and capability ruin their lives by drug use.
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