Director of Public Prosecutions v Singh

[2022] VCC 1808

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MILDURA

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 22-00376

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

ADITYA SINGH

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Mildura
DATE OF HEARING:	21 July 2022
DATE OF SENTENCE:	25 October 2022
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Singh
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2022] VCC 1808

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms R. Hamnet	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr T. Smurthwaite	Victoria Legal Aid

HIS HONOUR: 

1Aditya Singh, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of armed robbery and one charge of intentionally damaging property.  Those crimes carry maximum penalties of 25 years and 10 years respectively.  You also pleaded guilty to one uplifted summary matter of offending whilst on bail.  In respect of that matter, I simply convict and discharge.

2You are now 20 years of age and were 19 years of age at the time of the offending.  You pleaded guilty at an early stage and indeed made full admissions to the police.  Whether your plea of guilty is accompanied by remorse is somewhat problematic, but I will give you the benefit of the doubt in regard to that.

3Clearly, it attracts the principles involved in Worboyes and relieves the system of one more trial.  In these circumstances obviously where you were arrested, a citizen's arrest straight afterwards, a trial would not have lasted very long, but be that as it may also aware that any sentence of imprisonment undergone in Covid conditions. 

4It will be clear from the summary of the offending that it is a serious matter and calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, denunciation and appropriate punishment. 

5You are still a young person and I am very much aware of that, that rehabilitation should play as much a part in this as possible.  However, that rehabilitation depends upon the person who is to be rehabilitated and it is pretty clear to me that you have done very little, if anything, to endeavour to achieve that.

6A summary of the offending is that on 15 December 2021, in the morning, you walked to the front of a bakery in Glen Waverley and were captured on CCTV footage smashing the front glass sliding door with a hammer.  You walked into the bakery, you were wearing a black hoodie with a front pouch, black track suit pants, black runners, black baseball cap with a White Sox emblem on the peak, a blue disposable face mask and white gloves and you were holding a hammer in your hand.

7There was a female standing in front of the cash register.  You, with the hammer in your hand, yelled, 'Hand over all your fucking money so no one gets hurt', in a – this what the Crown opening says – very stern and aggressive tone.

8She was terrified for her safety.  As you were yelling, you were carrying the hammer, as was indicated in your left hand.  She opened the cash drawer, grabbed out all the larger notes and placed them on the counter.  You grabbed the money, took two steps out of the bakery, running off to the left.  She ran to the back of the shop to tell a co-worker what had happened and Triple 0 were telephoned.

9You were then followed by various people - I do not need to go through all the detail of that – but in any event a co-worker eventually chased you down and effectively performed a citizen's arrest.  When police were called, full admissions were made.  As I have said, you must get the benefit of that.

10It is clear in this matter it is a serious offence.  It was put it was at the lower end.  I am not so sure about that, because obviously a degree of thought went into it.  Whether you were going to use the disposable mask as a protection against Covid or not, I have got grave doubts, but be all that as it may, you clearly thought it through and you went ahead with it.

11There is no victim impact statement, but I do not really need a victim impact statement to understand the terror that that female, confronted by you with a hammer, would have felt.  It is the situation here was that obviously on the face of it, such offending calls for a custodial sentence. 

12Your counsel have put a very strong plea on your behalf that a community corrections order would be suffice in all the circumstances.  I have had you assessed for both a community corrections order and you were found not to be acceptable.  I have also had you – because I was concerned about having to put you in adult gaol – I have had you assessed for Youth Justice and they have found you to be unacceptable as well. 

13Prior to this matter being heard as a plea, my recollection is that it was listed in front of me originally as a revocation of bail application because of your performance whilst on bail, with Youth Justice.  Those circumstances are very concerning indeed.

14I then look at matters personal to you and note that firstly, you have no criminal history.  There have been, as I understand it, subsequent matters.  That again, that all just goes to rehabilitation rather than any additional punishment. 

15You were born in India.  Your family came to Australia in 2005.  You live at home with your parents.  You have instructed that your home life had been unhappy from your father perpetrating family violence and as a result your relationship with your father has had difficulties.

16You were able to complete your certificate of education, I am told and accept, and were able to commence to study law at Deakin University.  You discontinued your law studies and joined the Australian army. You were in the army for nearly a year before being discharged as a result of drug possession.  Since then you have been largely unemployed, you have had occasional jobs working online in customer service and at a kebab shop. It was put that it was relevant to your circumstances that you were using drugs.  I accept the submissions in regard to Worboyes.  I accept that you made full admissions and I accept that you are still a young person.

17I have read the report from Ms Cidoni. She says that you have an adjustment disorder and major depressive disorder as well as a substance abuse disorder.  She goes on to say:

'His behaviour in the offending period seemed uncontrolled and resulted in situations of severe impulsivity and (indistinct) ability to exercise appropriate judgment, make calm rational choices, to think clearly and control his behaviour was impaired'.

18Because of that, which I have again some reservation about, I am prepared to concede that principles 1 and 3 of Verdins have a part to play in this sentencing process.  She then goes on to describe other aspects of your history and it appears that you are not, certainly not an unintelligent person. 

19The last time it was before me you had outstanding matters listed in the Magistrates' Court.  I understand that you failed to appear on 14 October and were subsequently arrested and pleaded to a number of matters and the magistrate has deferred sentencing, as I understand, for you to comply with certain matters on bail.  Whether he or she has done that to see what I did, I do not know.  I will certainly take into account all the matters contained in Ms Cidoni's report, but I have also got to take into account what your attitude to all this has been. 

20Insofar as Community Corrections were concerned, you understood that you were to undertake an assessment with Community Corrections, on that day Community Corrections were unable to find you.  Ultimately, as I understand it, they did. 

21Mental health and advice response service endeavoured to contact you and were unable to and the problems with that all go on.  Community Corrections say that you are unsuitable.

22The Youth Justice report essentially expressed how you were on bail and initially perhaps it went all right but your mother has told them that you were spending multiple nights away, that you were continually breaching your bail conditions, that you were substance affected, and it seems that in terms of psychological matters at least, you have shown little if any inclination to change your ways.

23I can understand at your age why your Counsel will persist with, and quite properly, a submission of a community corrections order but when I have got somebody before me who has shown – and I am not going to go read all this out in detail – they will all be tendered and there for anybody else who wants to view them. from Youth Justice report, in terms of reasonable prospects for rehabilitation they say, 'You have limited criminal history.  Offending hasn't escalated in frequency'. 

24You apparently, they think, demonstrate a sincere understanding of victim awareness.  You certainly said those words to police.  I agree with them that a level of planning was evident, that it was serious.  You have prior poor compliance for prior supervision.  You have refused to engage in the past with intervention to address offending behaviour.  You have difficulty, they say, with authority and an inability to follow rules.  You demonstrate poor interpersonal relationships and disengagement from a, what the Justice at least say, is a prosocial family and they say that you exhibited minimal motivation to engage in prosocial activities and disassociate with negative peers.

25I, in a situation such as this, can impose a community corrections order without their agreement, and I can impose a Youth Justice order without their agreement.  That would be something I would be very reluctant to do in the situation, bearing in mind the way you have conducted yourself since the original plea hearing was concerned.  I have no inclination to do so.

26The prospects of your rehabilitation I think are very guarded, unless you wake up to yourself you are going to spend a lot of time in gaol.  Your risk of reoffending if released and continuing to use drugs, has to be regarded as high, though I note was Justice say that it has not escalated in seriousness.

27Armed robbery is a serious offence and there is no way around that.  Despite all the factors that have been put on your behalf it is my view now, having been refused those other options by the authorities, that an active adult custodial sentence is the only one available and it must be of sufficient proportion to deter others and indeed yourself from like conduct.

28Accordingly, on the charge – what I will do is – on the charge of armed robbery, you are sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of two years.

29The charge of criminal damage, three months concurrent.

30I direct that you serve 15 months before becoming eligible for parole.  I direct that one day be reckoned as having been served under this sentence.

31Pursuant to s6AAA I say that but for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to be imprisoned for a period of three years with a minimum term of two.

32Are there any other orders I need to make?

33MR SMURTHWAITE:  As Your Honour pleases.

34HIS HONOUR:  Any other orders I need to make, Madam Prosecutor?

35MS HAMNET:  No, I don't believe so, Your Honour.  Just confirming that there is a disposal order.  Has that order been made, Your Honour?

36HIS HONOUR:  I would have already made that, I think, yes.

37MS HAMNET:  Yes.  Yes, I think that is right.

38HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

39MS HAMNET:  No, nothing further, Your Honour.

40HIS HONOUR:  No.  All right, you can take him now, thank you.

41(At this stage the accused left the court.)

42Actually for completeness I will make sure that each of those reports is an exhibit.  That is Corrections, Youth Justice and Youth Bail, they will all be there and I make it clear that I have taken all those into account.  They can be one – are they already ‑ ‑ ‑

43ASSOCIATE:  B.

44HIS HONOUR:  D?

45ASSOCIATE:  B for bravo.

46HIS HONOUR:  B, Exhibit B.  All right, thanks, Ms Hamnet.  Thanks, Mr Smurthwaite.

47MS HAMNET:  Thank you, Your Honour.

48MR SMURTHWAITE:  As Your Honour pleases.

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