Director of Public Prosecutions v Skavo

[2019] VCC 445

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 18-02502

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

BORISLAV SKAVO

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	3 April 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Skavo
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VCC 445

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
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Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr J. Manning	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms M. O'Brien	Lethbridges Barristers and Solicitors

HIS HONOUR:

1Borislav Skavo, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, being not less than a commercial quantity, and one charge of possession of a drug of dependence, that being methamphetamine.  In these circumstances the maximum penalty for that charge is five years, the trafficking is 25 years.

2You also pleaded guilty to two uplifted summary matters, the sentencing for each of those being:  prohibited weapon, two years and property suspected of being the proceeds of crime, two years.

3You are now 30 years of age.  You pleaded guilty at a relatively early opportunity.  I will give you the benefit of the doubt in so far as remorse is concerned, but you certainly must get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty. You have saved the running of a trial.

4You do have an unfortunate criminal history, in that you have two prior convictions for trafficking drugs.  For one of those, at least, you served 78 days and then were released on a community corrections order.  You had only been released a matter of weeks before this offending took place and it took place, obviously, whilst you were still on that community corrections order.  That does not bode well for the future, but at your age I am still prepared to give you an opportunity to rehabilitate.

5A summary of the offending is that on 15 May 2018, having been released from prison a couple of weeks earlier, you borrowed a Ford motor vehicle and were ultimately discovered in that vehicle by police at approximately 11.24 pm, in Dorset Gardens, on 10 June.  You were approached by police and they asked you what you were doing, you said that you were just there to play the pokies.  You appeared nervous and fidgeting and, according to them, you appeared extremely nervous.

6There was apparently a co-offender, who basically ran away.  Each of you ran.  You, after running for about 15 metres threw a small plastic bottle containing 1-4 butanediol and that was recovered.  Your co-offender has not been discovered, as I understand it.  You ran for another 500 metres, jumping fences and the like.  A cordon was established.  You were ultimately found hiding behind a fence in Croydon.

7When arrested and cautioned you were asked why you ran from the police and you said, "Because I'm stupid".  Nearby police found a set of keys.  The car was then searched a number of implements were found consistent with the use and the selling of drugs, amphetamine was found.  A Visa credit and a CommBank key card in the name of Teagan Browne were found and a machete was found in the boot.  Slightly over $2,000 in cash was also found.

8The materials found in the car are consistent with both trafficking and the use of ice.  And most importantly within that scenario was found a one litre bottle of butanediol and in the rear passenger floor was found 3 litre bottles of the same substance.  So in the end, I calculate some 3.7 litres of the drug.  It has been explained to me it is a drug much the same as GHB and it is worth on the face of it about $1,000 a litre.  You are nearly twice the commercial quantity, but that is somewhat meaningless in circumstances like this.

9In any event, the offending has to be regarded as serious. It calls for the application of general and specific deterrence, as well as denunciation and appropriate punishment.  Again, this has to be viewed, as I have already said, in the circumstances you had only been released from prison not long before.  A custodial sentence of significant proportions is inevitable in a situation such as this, and I have been given a number of cases.  And I think there is no real dispute as to roughly what the range is in this situation.  You spent 296 days on remand and you spent 78 days in custody on the previous charges.

10You personal circumstances are that you were born in Bosnia in 1988.  You were not from a family of great wealth; your are the youngest of three children; your father, who was originally an electrician, was killed by a sniper in the Balkan War; you were raised by your mother; you came to Australia around about 2000; you went to primary school, received some bullying and you have been basically brought up by your mother, who continues to look after you.  You completed Year 12 in school and you, as I understand it, two or three years into an electrical engineering degree at Victoria University.  So you are clearly not an unintelligent man.

11You had been in a relationship with a girl you had known from high school and in 2010 she ended that relationship.  From what I am told from the Bar table to doubt that had very deleterious affect on you, that is where you use of drugs began. 

12You have had a reasonable good work history up until around about 2016 when the drugs took over.  You have a former partner, a Rebecca, and she has drug problems as well.  You have a son with her who essentially is looked after and cared for by your mother.  There is some DHS involvement, I do not have to go down that path.

13Your mother still supports you despite the grief that you have caused her over the last few years since you have been in gaol.  On this occasion you have been working and doing courses and, from what I am told from the Bar table, making a genuine attempt to rehabilitate yourself.

14You are still of an age where rehabilitation is certainly possible.  When you get out you have got accommodation with your mother and you have the hope, at least, of work with a brother.  Prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you, Ms Skavo.  The risk of you reoffending if you continue to use drugs, in this case ice, and others, is going to be very high, indeed.

15You have family support as I have indicated, potential for work, stable accommodation; it may be that the parole board take the view that you are worth the risk and it is a really a matter for negotiation between you and them.

16In these circumstances, I am prepared to give you an opportunity for parole somewhat earlier than might otherwise have been the case, and I am obviously aware of the principles of totality and a number of other matters just simply speak for themselves, I think.

17In any event, in all the circumstances, on the charge of trafficking, three years and six months; on possess amphetamine, six months - three months of that cumulative.  Gives you three years and nine months.  One month each on the two summary matters, both to be served concurrently.  So that is an effective head sentence of three years and nine months.

18I direct that you serve a minimum of two years before becoming eligible for parole, for the reasons I have indicated.

19I direct that 296 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence.

20And in this situation, pursuant to s.6AAA, I say that but for your plea of guilty you would have been sentenced to imprisoned for a period of five and a half years, with a minimum term of three and a half.

21I will make those other orders when need be and there is no other orders I need to make?

22MS O'BRIEN:  No, Your Honour.

23MR MANNING:  No, Your Honour.

24HIS HONOUR:  No, all right.  Yes, all right.  Mr Skavo can go now.

25OFFENDER:  Thank you, Your Honour.

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