Director of Public Prosecutions v Sioulas

[2020] VCC 55

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-01267

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

STEVEN SIOULAS

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CAHILL
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	31 January 2020
DATE OF SENTENCE:	6 February 2020
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Sioulas
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2020] VCC 55

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Trafficking drugs of dependence – Attempt to pervert the course of justice
Catchwords: Guilty plea – Client of St Paul’s Rehabilitation – Supplied cocaine and MDMA to Anthony Dieni – Mislead Magistrate at bail hearing -
Legislation Cited: -
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr C. Liaskos	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr. C. Pearson

HIS HONOUR: 

1Steven Sioulas, you have pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, namely cocaine, and a charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, namely methyl amphetamine, and a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice. 

2This offending occurred between July and September 2017. 

3You have also pleaded guilty to a charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, methyl amphetamine, another charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, MDMA, a charge of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime, and a charge of possessing a drug of dependence, cannabis-L, in addition to related summary matters, fraudulent use of registration plates and two offences of committing an indictable offence on bail, and that is the two trafficking charges of methamphetamine and MDMA.

4This offending occurred on 9 and 10 September 2019.

5The circumstances of your 2017 offending are set out on the prosecution opening upon plea, dated 1 October 2018, which is Exhibit A.  They are agreed facts. 

6In summary, between 14 July 2017 and 12 September 2017, you supplied cocaine, Charge 1, and methyl amphetamine, Charge 2, to Anthony Dieni.  Dieni operated St Pauls, a drug rehabilitation service.  He was the target of an IBAC investigation.  Investigators intercepted his telephone calls.  In communications with him, you sold, agreed to sell, and offered to sell him cocaine, on ten occasions, totalling not less than 20 grams, Charge 1, and methyl amphetamine, on nine occasions, totalling not less than 6.8 grams, Charge 2.  Denny was ostensibly your drug rehabilitation counsellor.

7In August 2017, you were on bail for drug charges.  One of your bail conditions required you to engage with Denny for drug rehabilitation.  You were to provide random urine samples for drug screening as part of the rehab program.  Rather than require you to submit random samples, Dieni gave you notice so you could take steps to maximise the prospects of providing clean samples of urine. 

8On 7 August 2017, you appeared at Melbourne Magistrates' Court.  Your lawyer, relying on what Dieni and you had told him, misled the court when he informed the magistrate you had submitted six clean urine samples and Dieni was, 'very happy' with your progress.  Having heard from your solicitor, the magistrate extended your bail, and that conduct constitutes Charge 3, attempting to pervert the course of justice.

9The circumstances of your 2019 offending are set out in the prosecution opening upon plea, dated 30 January 2020, which was Exhibit C.  They also are agreed facts. 

10On 9 September 2019, police spoke to you while you were washing a car at a Bentleigh East car wash.  Their attention was drawn to an irregular registration plate on the car.  The plates on the car were false.  Your use of the car constitutes the summary offence of fraudulently using false registration plates. 

11A man and woman were with you.  Police searched your car and found four ziplock bags containing a crystalline substance which, on analysis, contained approximately 67 grams of methyl amphetamine.  Your possession of these drugs constitutes Charge 1, trafficking in a drug of dependence, methyl amphetamine.  They also found two ziplock bags containing 23 MDMA tablets.  Your possession of those drugs constitutes part of Charge 2, trafficking in a drug of dependence, MDMA. 

12In the car, they also found scales, a smoking pipe and other ziplock bags and $3355.10 in cash.  Your possession of the cash constitutes part of Charge 3, knowingly deal with the proceeds of crime. 

13In the car's boot lid, police found a ziplock bag containing approximately 30 grams of loose cannabis and your possession of this drug constitutes Charge 4, possession of a drug of dependence.

14Police arrested and charged you and you were remanded in custody. 

15Next day they executed a search warrant at your mother's home where you were living.  In the house, in your bedroom, they found three ziplock bags containing 277 MDMA pills, weighing 90.9 grams.  Your possession of those drugs constitutes part of Charge 2, trafficking in the drug of dependence, MDMA.  They also found $14,850 in cash and your possession of the cash constitutes part of Charge 3, knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime.

16You were on bail for other offences at the time, and, trafficking in methyl amphetamine while on bail and trafficking MDMA while on bail constitutes the offences of committing indictable offences whilst on bail. 

17When you committed this offending, you were not only on bail, you were also subject to an eight month community correction order, which was imposed on 13 April 2018. 

18When police interviewed you, you made full admissions to possession of the methyl amphetamine and the MDMA tablets in the car.  You said you did not know about the cannabis, that it may have been in the car for a while, and it must have been yours. 

19You admitted the registration plates were fake and admitted having sold three grams of methyl amphetamine for $500 to one of the people with you at the car wash shortly before police arrived.  You admitted the MDMA tablets located in your bedroom were yours.  You said you had relapsed and the methyl amphetamine was mainly for your personal use.  In effect, you said you had bought and sold drugs to support your own habit.

20You have admitted a criminal record for a number of summary convictions. 

21Relevantly, you have six prior summary convictions for trafficking drugs of dependence, recorded on 4 April 2016 and two drug trafficking convictions recorded on 19 April 2017.

22For your 2016 offending, with other offences, you were sentenced to 90 days in prison, in combination with a community correction order for 18 months.  For your 2017 offending with other offences, you were sentenced to 74 days imprisonment in combination with a community correction order for 12 months.  It was a condition of that order that you attend drug counselling with Mr Dieni.

23You have served a third term of imprisonment.  On 17 November 2017, you were sentenced to four months' imprisonment following the breach of an earlier community correction order. 

24Your personal circumstances are set out in the report of Carla Lechner, clinical psychologist, who assessed you on 7 March 2019.  Her report was defence Exhibit 2. 

25You are now 52 years old.  You were born in Australia, the elder of two sons.  Your father died in 2014.  In 2019, when you offended, you were living with your mother.  You grew up in Melbourne and attended local schools.  You reported a very good home life.  After you completed Year 12, you went to Swinburne University where you completed courses in computer programming.  You then worked in various computer programming positions until you established your own business around 2000.

26You had married your wife in 1997.  You have a daughter who is now 15 years old.  You said, with success in business, you started using cocaine and, with the global financial crisis in 2008, your business struggled.  You admitted your cocaine use was, 'a problem.'  And your marriage suffered.

27You separated from your wife in 2010.  You said you started using meth amphetamine to numb the pain of your business and marriage failures.  You said you were using up to one gram daily of meth amphetamine and sometimes took Xanax to help you sleep. 

28It was in the context of your drug addiction, that your history of criminal offending commenced in 2016.  You said in 2017, when you attended St Pauls for drug rehabilitation Dieni, 'started putting it on you to get him drugs for his girlfriend and grandson.'

29You said that when he said he, 'could easily breach you, you just did what he said.'  You said you felt intimidated by him and you supplied him drugs sometimes in lieu of his fees.

30You said Dieni supported your bail application in July 2017.  You said you provided false urine samples to give the pretence you were drug-free.  You said, 'Dieni told me how to do it.  Most of the piss tests were unsupervised.' 

31Ms Lechner assessed you following that 2017 offending, but before your offending in September 2019.  When she assessed you, you told her you had significantly reduced your drug-use through your own efforts.  You admitted to using ice occasionally.  Then, she recommended you obtain counselling under a mental health care plan to assist you with minimising your drug use.

32You were living with your mother and you tried to isolate yourself from your negative drug cohort, but, by September 2019, you had relapsed into heavy drug use and reoffended selling drugs to support your habit. 

33You were supported in court by your mother, her two sisters, a friend and your business partner.  Your friend, in his letter, which was Exhibit 3, wrote that he drove you to your appointments at St Pauls after you had lost your driver's licence.  Often, after an appointment, you, 'looked very frustrated and sometimes aggravated.'  When he asked you whether everything was okay, generally you replied, 'Let's go.' 

34Later you told him Dieni was asking you for drugs for his continued support of you under the program and you felt if you did not supply him with the drugs you would end up back in gaol.

35Before you were arrested in September 2019, you were working as the managing director of a refreshment towel supply business and I was provided with a business card to that effect, which was Exhibit 5.

36Your daughter also wrote a letter to the court which was Exhibit 4.  She is 15 years old and lives with her mother.  She understands you have, '… made some mistakes in life.'  She misses you and wants you to be part of her life doing, 'normal dad stuff.'  But for an illness she would have been at court to support you.  I was told you were keen to restore your relationship with your daughter when you are released from prison.  

37In written submissions, Exhibits 1 and 6, and oral submissions, Mr Pearson, who appeared on your behalf, submitted you were the subordinate in your offending with Mr Dieni.  He submitted Dieni took advantage of the power you felt he had over you to obtain drugs from you.  He also submitted I should accept your explanations to police that a significant quantity of the drugs in your possession in your car and at your home on 9 and 10 September 2019 was for personal use and the remainder you intended to sell to fund your addiction.

38Mr Pearson also relied on the following factors in mitigation of penalty. 

39Firstly, your pleas of guilty entered at the first available opportunity, for their utilitarian value, for your acceptance of responsibility for your criminal actions and as evidence of remorse. 

40Secondly, your cooperation with police when they arrested you on 9 September 2019. 

41Thirdly, your limited, although relevant criminal history which commenced in 2016 when you were nearly 50 years old. 

42Fourthly, your reasonable prospects of conviction provided you remain drug-abstinent, given your family support, the prospect of stable accommodation and employment and your motivation to restore your relationship with your daughter and not re-offend; and

43Fifthly, parity in sentencing between you and a number of other persons who, like you, mislead Magistrates with false drug screens and/or supplied Dieni with drugs whilst they were under his supervision at St Pauls. 

44In that regard, the prosecution filed a helpful table, Exhibit B, summarising the charges and sentences this court has imposed in respect of ten similar offenders.

45One, who pleaded guilty to a single charge of possessing a small quantity of meth amphetamine, was released on an adjourned undertaking.  One, who pleaded guilty to two trafficking charges in very small quantities, was fined.  Six, who pleaded guilty to trafficking charges and/or attempting to pervert the court of justice, were released on community correction orders for periods varying for 12 months for drug trafficking only, to two years for drug trafficking and attempting to pervert the course of justice.  One, who pleaded guilty to five counts of trafficking cocaine and attempting to pervert the course of justice, was sentenced to a combination of imprisonment and a two year community correction order, and one, who additionally pleaded guilty to an unrelated robbery, and was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment on that charge, and, in respect of trafficking charges and attempting to pervert the course of justice, a two year community correction order was imposed. 

46Ultimately, Mr Pearson submitted, for all your offending, I should impose a term of imprisonment, in combination with a community correction order, to allow for your continued rehabilitation in the community, under supervision, upon your release from gaol.

47Mr Singh, who appeared for the prosecution, in commendably brief submissions, agreed a combination sentence is within proper sentencing range. 

48By your guilty pleas, you acknowledge your 2017 offending was voluntary.  However, I accept it occurred in circumstances where you felt pressured to supply Dieni the drugs he sought from you, to the extent that you were dependent upon him for positive rehabilitation reports, and accordingly, there was an imbalance of power between the two of you.  I am also satisfied he orchestrated the deception on the Magistrates' Court in your bail proceeding. 

49Having regard to your lesser moral culpability and also parity with similar offenders, I am satisfied appropriate punishment for you does not demand the imposition of a term of imprisonment for this offending.

50However, your 2019 offending was more serious.  While I am satisfied you were selling drugs substantially to satisfy your addiction, at the time you were on bail for other offences and also subject to a community correction order, a core condition of which was that you not re-offend.  You had also served two terms of imprisonment for previous drug trafficking.

51In all the circumstances, I am satisfied a term of imprisonment must be imposed in respect of your 2019 offending.  However, I accept your early guilty pleas and your cooperation with police, in addition to their utilitarian value, are evidence of your acceptance of responsibility for your actions and remorse. 

52I also accept your prospects of rehabilitation, which I regard as reasonable, provided you remain drug-abstinent, will be best advanced by a period of continued treatment under supervision in the community after your release from prison.

53Because you are to be sentenced for a number of offences I have also had regards to the totality principle to ensure to your aggregate sentence is a just and appropriate measure of your total criminality. 

54Overall, taking into account the circumstances of all your offending and your personal circumstances, I am satisfied a combination sentence of a term of imprisonment and a community correction order meets both the punitive and rehabilitative objectives of sentencing. 

55I have had you assessed for a community correction order and you have been found suitable.  I accept the assessing officer's recommendation that in addition to the core conditions, I should impose the following special conditions, that is, drug treatment and rehabilitation, supervision and judicial monitoring. 

56Please stand Mr Sioulas. 

57By the sentence I impose, I must denounce your conduct, punish you and deter you and others from committing crimes of the same or a similar kind. 

58I must also look to your rehabilitation, taking into account the circumstances of your offending, your personal circumstances and antecedents, and endeavouring to produce a sentence which reflects and promotes the purposes of sentencing in a manner appropriate to you.

59In relation to your 2019 offending on the charge of trafficking methyl amphetamine, you are sentenced to six months' imprisonment;

60On the charge of trafficking MDMA, you are sentenced to six months' imprisonment;

61On the charge of knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime, you are sentenced to four months' imprisonment, and on the charge of possessing a small quantity of cannabis, you are convicted and fined $100.

62On the summary charge of fraudulently using false registration plates, you are convicted and fined $400 and on each of the summary charges of committing an indictable offence on bail, you were sentenced to two months' imprisonment. 

63I order that two months' of the sentence I have imposed on the MDMA trafficking charge and one month of the sentence I have imposed on the summary charge of committing an indictable offence trafficking methyl amphetamine while on bail, be served cumulatively on the sentence I have imposed on the trafficking methyl amphetamine charge and each other, so that your total effective sentence is nine months' imprisonment. 

64To avoid double punishment, I order that the sentence on the proceeds of drug trafficking charge, and also the sentence on the second charge of committing an indictable offence on bail, trafficking MDMA, be served concurrently with all other sentences. 

65I declare you have already served 150 days of your sentence by pre-sentence detention.  By consent, I make orders for disposal of the drugs and related items set out in the schedule to the order and forfeiture of the cash which was the proceeds of crime set out in the schedule to that order. 

66In relation to your 2017 offending on Charge 1, trafficking cocaine, Charge 2, trafficking methyl amphetamine and Charge 3, attempting to pervert the course of justice, you are convicted and in respect of those offences, I am prepared to release you on a community correction order for a period of two years which will commence on your release from prison. 

67In relation to the community correction order, and in addition to the core conditions, you will be required to attend for supervision to complete drug treatment and rehabilitation programs.

68You will also be required to attend at this court for judicial monitoring on Monday 14 September, 2020 at 9.30 am which will be approximately three months after your release from prison.  When you appear in court on 14 September I will receive a report of your progress on that order. 

69The order requires you to report to the Dandenong Community Corrections office within two days of your release from prison. Taking into account the punitive aspect of the time you will have spent in gaol, I have not included community work hours in the order. 

70Mr Sioulas, I understand when you were assessed, the conditions and the requirements of the order were explained to you.  I will have the order prepared now and I will ask Mr Pearson to go through the conditions with you, and then you will be asked to sign an acknowledgment that you understand them and you understand the consequences of breaching the order, and if you consent to the order being made, I will make it.

71Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I declare, but for your guilty pleas, I would have imposed a total effective sentence of two years and six months' imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of one year and eight months. 

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