Director of Public Prosecutions v Spokes

[2016] VCC 498

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 16-00050

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

MATTHEW SPOKES

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE COHEN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	14 April 2016, 22 April 2016 (for further plea)
DATE OF SENTENCE:	26 April 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Spokes
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 498

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:  Sentencing; aggravated burglary
Catchwords:             Plea of guilty
Legislation Cited:     Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) s 6AAA
Cases Cited:

Sentence:      TES: 10 months imprisonment (302 days PSD) to be followed by a CCO of 2 years duration with unpaid community work, rehabilitative and supervision conditions.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms R. Champion	OPP
For the Accused	Ms A. Burt	Stary Halphen Norton

1HER HONOUR:  Matthew Lindsay Spokes, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated burglary and two charges of theft.  You have also pleaded guilty and agreed to have heard in this court, five summary offences.  These are two charges of driving whilst disqualified, and one each of fraudulent use of a registration label for a vehicle, resisting an emergency worker on duty, and committing an indictable offence whilst on bail. 

2You have also admitted a prior criminal history, to which I shall refer later.

3The maximum penalty for aggravated burglary is 25 years' imprisonment.  For each charge of theft it is ten years' imprisonment.  For fraudulent use of the registration label, the maximum is two months' imprisonment and/or ten penalty units, for driving whilst disqualified it is four months' imprisonment and/or 30 penalty units, for resisting an emergency worker it is six months' imprisonment and/or 60 penalty units, and for committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, it is three months' imprisonment and/or 30 penalty units.

4These maximum penalties reflect the relative seriousness with which Parliament, on behalf of the community, regards offences of each of these types.

5These offences all occurred between 27 and 29 June 2015.  Overnight on
27 June or early the next morning, you broke into, and stole from a residential unit in Pakenham, in which the resident was present and asleep.  You entered the residence, stole car keys from a hook and an iPad that was in plain sight, and used the keys to drive away the Holden Commodore car that had been in the adjoining garage.  Inside the car were binoculars.

6This unit belonged to a 79 year old man who lived there alone, and had gone to bed that night having locked all doors to his house and garage.  The next morning when he awoke he saw a torch from his car lying in the unit, then noticed that his iPad and car keys were missing and found the garage empty.

7It is not alleged that you knew that the resident was present, nor that you had any intention to confront or physically harm him.  The basis of Charge 1 of aggravated burglary is that you entered with the intention to steal and were reckless as to the probability that a person would be present. Charge 2 is of theft of the car, and Charge 3 theft of the iPad and binoculars. 

8This unit was part of Evergreen Village where several retirees lived, including the man in the unit that you entered and stole from. 

9There was CCTV footage which depicts you driving his car away from his residence at about 7.10 am the next morning.  At the time you were not licensed to drive, having been disqualified by an order of the Dandenong Magistrates' Court in January 2012 for a period of four years. This is the basis of a summary charge of driving whilst disqualified.  The second such charge is based on you being observed by police on Monday, 29 June last year, driving the stolen car in Traralgon. 

10Having observed you driving the stolen car, police went to a house where they observed that the car bore registration plates from a different vehicle, and then saw the old registration sticker bearing the true registration number, and these facts give rise to the summary charge of fraudulent use of a registration on a vehicle.

11Once police enquiries confirmed that it was a stolen vehicle they called for back-up with the intention of performing an arrest.  Four police officers were involved, two going to the rear yard and two to the front yard of the address.  You exited the house and spoke to one of the police officers in the front yard, and were uncooperative and denied that two people had been in the car, maintaining that it was just you. You were then arrested. However, your brother appeared and was uncooperative and defensive with police, and you apparently took a lead from him, including swearing and yelling obscenities at a police officer who pushed you away.  Your brother resisted an attempt to arrest him and then when the police officer walked back to you and told you to put your hands behind your back so you could be handcuffed and grabbed your right wrist, your brother took some action resulting in you then pulling your hand out of the police officer's grip and moving towards another police officer.  Capsicum spray was then deployed in your face and the arrest completed.  Your actions in these events are the basis of the summary charge of resisting an emergency worker on duty, in this case a police officer.

12In the stolen car police saw an iPad and binoculars, these being the subject of Charge 3 of theft.

13About two weeks prior to the break-in you had been placed on bail for an unrelated matter.  Accordingly, when you committed the aggravated burglary, that was an indictable offence committed whilst you were on bail and that is the basis of the last summary charge.

14I am told that you committed this burglary and theft after a spontaneous decision made by you in the early hours of that Sunday morning while heavily affected by methylamphetamine.  I am told that you had been walking across a vacant block when you made a spontaneous decision to break into a unit you saw adjoining it, and you did not know that it was part of a retirement village as you saw only the back fence. Nor did you know that the occupant was likely to be elderly.  I accept that you did not know whether the unit was actually occupied at that point in time, and had no intention to harm or confront a resident there, but you were reckless in that it was likely that someone would be home early on a Sunday morning, and that is the basis of your pleading guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary.

15I have read a victim impact statement from Mr Bugg, whose home it was that you entered and car and items you stole.  He is angry and sad that this occurred when he thought he would be safe living in a retirement village.  Understandably, he describes being terribly shocked on getting up that morning and discovering an empty garage, to the point of trembling so he had difficulty phoning his daughter, and he felt he could not sleep there and instead slept at his daughter's place for the next few weeks.  He apparently consulted a doctor about problems sleeping after this incident and ongoing anxiety after it, and was referred to a psychologist to talk about these issues.  I accept that the incident overall has left him feeling what he describes as “a bit insecure”.

16The offence of aggravated burglary carries a very heavy maximum penalty which reflects how seriously offences of this type are to be regarded.  The invasion of a person's home is an aspect to be strongly condemned on behalf of the community, even if it is with the intention to steal rather than assault or otherwise harm or frighten.  The fact that you were on bail at the time is an aggravating feature, as you should have been mindful of being subject to a court order and being especially careful not to stray into further offending.

17In this case the householder was more vulnerable than most, given his age and the fact that he had removed his hearing aids on going to bed.  If I had been satisfied, as I would need to have been beyond reasonable doubt, that you knew that you were entering the home of a person living in a retirement village or otherwise vulnerable person, I would take that factor into account as increasing your blameworthiness.  However, you say that you did not know that and have, indeed, written a letter which you would like to be given to Mr Bugg.  In that letter you set out your apology and express not only your shame, but some insight into the effect on him of feeling less secure in his own home.  You acknowledge that you stole hard earned belongings from a senior citizen who did not deserve that.

18I take into account that your intention was to steal and not to confront or harm an occupant.  It was opportunistic offending which was at a relatively low level for the offence of aggravated burglary, although not so low for theft when it comes to theft of a car from a residence, after stealing its keys.

19The summary charges are not in themselves as serious as the indictable ones, and that, of course, is reflected in the maximum penalties.  However, your repeated driving whilst disqualified was flagrant disregard for previously imposed restriction on your driving, and, as I will refer to shortly, you have a long history of unlicensed driving offences.

20The confrontation with police, whether or not influenced by your brother, cannot be condoned, although I note that your aggression was more verbal than physical, except that you pulled your hand away when being arrested and also apparently approached another officer. 

21The commission of an indictable offence whilst on bail is itself an offence, but I note that I have also taken into account as an aggravating feature of the aggravated burglary that you were on bail at the time, and although, as the authorities say, this is a separate offence, I have taken into account the fact that I am treating it as an aggravating factor in the burglary as well.  However, you ought to have been more alert to the risk of committing further offences whilst you were on bail.

22You pleaded guilty to these charges at an early opportunity and are entitled to considerable leniency for doing so.  I am told that you had already made admissions to police, although I have not been able to hear or read the record of interview as it was not transcribed.  Your pleas of guilty save the community the time and cost of disputed hearings, and witnesses from having to give evidence, and reflect a willingness to facilitate the course of justice.  In your case I accept that the pleas of guilty reflect real remorse, which I can see expressed with some insight in the letter you have written to Mr Bugg.  I shall state what your sentence would have been had you not pleaded guilty after I have told you the sentences that I will impose.

23I turn now to your personal history.  You are now aged 25 and were 24 at the time of this offending. 

24I am told that you had a particularly difficult childhood, and assuming the features that have been outlined are true, it was indeed so.  I am told that your mother raised you and your younger brother and sister as a single mother, but that she was addicted to heroin and, unfortunately, she died when you were aged seven.  You and your two younger siblings were then raised by your father, but I am told that he struggled with that responsibility and himself took to alcohol and drug abuse.  You describe being subject to particularly severe discipline and many violent beatings.  You apparently left home at the age of 13 when there was at least an opportunity to obtain accommodation with an older half-brother, but you had run away even before then.

25You left school early, having apparently had problems at school after your mother died, and being expelled in Year 8 from secondary school for violent   behaviour.  I am told that you then worked in furniture removal for a few months, and also did fencing with a friend, and later worked on and off as a plasterer with a friend.  I am told that you would like to resume plastering employment when you get the chance.

26I am told that from age 11 you used cannabis and that your drug use was regular from the age of 15.  You also engaged in binge drinking of alcohol from your mid-teens, and used amphetamines.  By the time of the offending for which I am sentencing you, you were using methylamphetamine, and you are said to have been highly affected by it at the time of breaking into Mr Bugg's unit.  That is no excuse for your offending, particularly as you knew by then the impact of that drug on your behaviour or decision making from prior experience.  However, the circumstances of your taking up drug use and abuse and, indeed, alcohol abuse, do put a slightly different slant on it. It seems to me that you were of an age where you were not as fully responsible for making a deliberate decision to engage in drug and alcohol abuse as you would have been had it not occurred until you were adult.  I also take into account the hardship in your background which no doubt contributed to you seeking refuge in the use first of cannabis, then alcohol then other drugs.

27You have a significant criminal history, starting almost ten years ago when you were dealt with in the Children's Court for multiple charges including thefts of motor vehicles, unlicensed driving, thefts from shops, from motor vehicles, going equipped to steal, failure to answer bail and intentionally causing injury.  For that set of charges you were placed on probation, but apparently breached it.  Subsequent appearances at Children's Courts were for further offending of similar nature, and also related to possession and use of cannabis.  Eventually in April 2008 you were sentenced to detention in a Youth Justice Centre.  That sentence was for six months.  Later that year you were placed on a good behaviour bond in relation to unlicensed driving and exceeding the blood alcohol limit.  In 2010 you received a suspended sentence, by this stage in an adult court, for criminal damage, burglary and theft and for driving offences, and were ordered to undergo a positive lifestyle program as a condition of a good behaviour bond.  However, if you did undergo that program it did not have long term effect of reducing your offending.

28In January 2012 you were sentenced for a number of dishonesty and driving related offences to three months' imprisonment, which you served.  Then in February 2013 you were sentenced in the County Court for armed robbery to 30 months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 months, but I am told that you never got parole, as you reacted against finding out too late of a requirement to undertake a program and therefore did not apply for parole.  This may well be a reflection of your immaturity at the time as well as underlying anger.  However, the net effect was that you served that full three years and were not released from custody until March 2015.  In the meantime you had been sentenced for what was your last prior conviction prior to these matters. You were sentenced in March 2013 for an aggregate of three months imprisonment for theft, going equipped to steal and criminal damage.

29As I have said, you were released in March 2015 from that total of three years in prison.  You apparently abstained from alcohol for some weeks, but then reverted to using it, and you also resumed abusing methamphetamine.  You unfortunately had, I am told, taken up with a young woman who was involved with drugs and proved to be a poor influence on you, including as to drug abuse.  You were arrested in mid-June last year for other matters for which you were bailed and, as I have said, one of the charges before me is for committing an indictable offence whilst on bail.  Then in late June you committed these offences that are before me.  You have been remanded in custody ever since, and that is just over ten months.

30I am told that you now realise that you were foolish not to take advantage of the type of support programs which were available through Youth Justice in the earlier years when you were before Children's Courts.  Indeed, when you came out of YJC you were assisted to find a job.  However, apparently you became disillusioned with that job because initially you were not paid for it.

31You then obtained plastering work with a friend and worked, I am told, for six days a week for nine or ten months.  This seems to reflect that if you can obtain employment and stay off the drugs and alcohol you are well able to work hard, and that could provide real stability for you in the future and, of course, the basis for earning money and setting yourself up in a responsible lifestyle.

32I am told that you are now keen to undertake appropriate programs to assist you to establish a stable life for yourself in future, drug free and without abusing alcohol.  I note that you have undertaken some courses whilst in custody on remand, including a 12 hour substance use program, and also a program called “Coping Inside and Managing Worry”, which I am told you have found very useful, and you would like further programs of similar nature.

33I have read a psychological report from Dr Aaron Cunningham, who examined you last October in relation to a number of charges, not all of which are before me now.  Dr Cunningham considered that you qualify for a diagnosis of major depressive order.  At the time you were being prescribed Avanza for that, which I assume has continued while you have been in custody.  Dr Cunningham also was of opinion that you are at risk of institutionalisation.  He administered some psychometric testing, which led to the conclusion that you are in the average range for non-verbal fluid reasoning, and there is no indication of intellectual impairment.  I might say that many people who come before me with a long history of drug abuse have impaired their own intellectual functioning as a result, and it seems fortuitous that you appear not to have done so by your abuse of drugs.

34Dr Cunningham's opinion is that your major depressive disorder stems from the instability and trauma in your childhood, and that with your abuse of drugs and involvement in antisocial behaviour, resulting in spending significant amounts of time in detention, you have not developed independent living skills and have an impaired ability to cope with day to day stress in the community.  This, of course, has led you to relapse into further drug abuse when back in the community, further offending and being sentenced for those further offences.

35Dr Cunningham found you motivated to engage with supports in the community and to undertake drug rehabilitation, counselling and to return to work.  He considered that if left untreated your major depressive order would weigh more heavily on you during a term of imprisonment than it would for someone without that disorder.  He also thought further imprisonment was likely to further entrench your institutionalisation.  He thought you would benefit from psychological and drug and alcohol support in the community and from gaining and maintaining accommodation and employment.

36I have taken Dr Cunningham's views into account.  In particular, his view that if left untreated your major depressive order would weigh more heavily on you during a term of imprisonment.  That would entitle you to some mitigation pursuant to one of the principles in Verdins case.  However, as I am told that you are taking Avanza as prescribed, it is difficult for me to assess the degree to which that condition has been left untreated as so described.

37In light of Dr Cunningham's opinions and, indeed, the history related of your difficulties, real difficulties, through childhood and teenage, I am prepared to accept that your involvement with alcohol and drug abuse was at least partly precipitated by such a troubled childhood, so that when you commenced abusing those substances you were at too young an age to be making fully reasoned decisions to do so, especially precipitated as they were by the troubles in your childhood.  To this extent your drug abuse was not entirely voluntary and to the extent it affected your decision making at the time of these offences, that lowers your culpability, although, in my view, only a little when taken in light of the overall circumstances.  Nevertheless I do regard it as lowered a little.  Luckily, as I have said, according to Dr Cunningham's findings, your drug abuse has not significantly lowered your intellectual functioning.  So if you can abstain from resuming that substance abuse you have the capacity to obtain work and build a stable and responsible life yourself in the future.

38You have been assessed as suitable for a CCO notwithstanding that you were also assessed as being of high risk of re-offending.  It is noted in that report that you have not had previous involvement with Community Correctional Services.  You have expressed a willingness to engage and comply with a CCO, something that is easy to say in the circumstances in which you find yourself but not usually as easy to do for someone with your extended history of drug abuse and offending.  Nevertheless I take into account that you have not previously had the opportunity as an adult to undertake a correctional order with rehabilitative and treatment type conditions, and at age 25 it is possible that you have reached a stage of understanding that for you to have a stable and responsible future and not spend most of your future on a cycle of returns to prison, you need to address seriously the underlying problems that have contributed to your past offending, and primarily your drug and alcohol abuse, as well as the mental health problems that have contributed to that substance abuse and your behaviour generally.

39I have therefore decided to give you the opportunity of undertaking a CCO with treatment programs as conditions on your release from prison.  Although you have a considerable criminal history you are still at an age when your rehabilitation, if it can be achieved, will be in the best interests of not only you but the community in general.  I have decided to impose a sentence that will facilitate that whilst also imposing significant punishment.

40While your prospects of rehabilitation must be described as no better than “guarded”, given your history of repeated offending, I have taken into account that the letters that I have read from you, both to Mr Bugg and, in particular, last year to a Magistrate, disclose what in my view is some impressive insight and, indeed, literacy, for a person who left school as young as you did.  If you can get yourself into stable housing and work, and stay off the drugs and excessive alcohol, I would like to think that you can have a responsible, and hopefully with it, satisfying life ahead, Mr Spokes. But ultimately that is very much in your hands.  You are now an adult and have the opportunity to undergo programs to which you will just have to commit if you want that future for yourself.

41As previously stated, the offence of aggravated burglary is a serious one, and although yours was at a relatively low level of seriousness for that offence and did not lead to you actually confronting the householder, let alone physically harming him, I regard as still important that your sentence convey to others tempted to engage in such behaviour, that they can expect serious punishment.  Further, with your extensive criminal history, I regard specific deterrence, that is to deter you from future offending, to also be an important factor.

42For these reasons I am satisfied that no sentence would be sufficient that did not involve some period of imprisonment.  The period which you have been on remand so far is almost ten months, and that will count towards your sentence.

43Would you stand up now, please.

44Matthew Spokes, I sentence you as follows. First, on the charges on the indictment: on Charge 1 of aggravated burglary, you are convicted and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment to be followed by a CCO to last for two years with conditions that you perform 100 hours of unpaid community work, be subject to supervision, undergo assessment and treatment as directed for drug abuse, alcohol abuse, undergo assessment for and treatment for mental health conditions, and also that you undertake any programs as directed to reduce offending behaviour.  I will come back to the further terms which are usual terms of aCCO shortly.

45On Charge 2, theft of a car, you are sentenced to four months' imprisonment.  On Charge 3 of theft, you are sentenced to one month's imprisonment. 

46I direct that one month of the sentence on Charge 2 be served cumulatively on the sentence on Charge 1, otherwise the sentences will be served concurrently, resulting in a total effective sentence on the charges on the indictment of ten months' imprisonment to be followed by a CCO for two years.

47On the two summary charges of unlicensed driving you are sentenced to an aggregate of two months' imprisonment.  On the charge or resisting an emergency worker on duty, one month imprisonment.  For committing an indictable offence whilst on bail, one month imprisonment, and for using false registration label, one week imprisonment.

48I direct that one month of the sentence on the two summary charges of unlicensed driving be served - it's actually driving whilst disqualified - I have come to realise.  One month of the aggregate sentence on the charges of driving whilst disqualified be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed on the indictment this day, otherwise the sentences will be served concurrently with all other sentences imposed this day. 

49The total overall sentence is therefore 11 months' imprisonment to be followed by a two year CCO, and I will go back over the conditions shortly.

50I declare 302 days of pre-sentence detention as reckoned already served.  That leaves just about a month more in prison before your release.

51As I said, the conditions on the CCO involves some further penalty but also treatment conditions.  There is a condition that you perform 100 hours of unpaid community work, you be subject to supervision, you attend for assessment and treatment as directed for drugs, alcohol, also mental health treatment, and any programs that are directed to reduce offending behaviour.  In addition, all usual terms of a CCO apply.  Those are that within two working days of you being released from prison you are to report at the nearest Community Corrections office to where you will be living.  I am not sure if there is yet an address known.  I think it was said there is a friend with whom you hope to reside - with her and her mother.  I cannot remember if I - - -

52MS CHAMPION:  Yes, Your Honour, I think that is in Pakenham, from  memory.

53HER HONOUR:  Yes, all right.  Yes, I think the address on the system is still your father's address.  It will be a question of the nearest Community Corrections office to where you will be living, and - all right, the Dandenong Community Corrections office seems to apply to both those potential addresses, so it will be the Dandenong office, by 4 pm, two working days after your release. 

54You are, during the whole of the Community Corrections Order obliged to advise Community Corrections officers of any change of address of where you are living or where you are working.  So once you obtain work you advise them of the address and if you change work you are to advise them of that address too, and any change in where you are living, and you must give that notice to them of the new addresses within two clear working days of the change occurring. During the whole of the order you are to submit to visits as they require.  You are to obey all lawful directions of Community Corrections officers.  You are not to leave the State of Victoria without prior permission from Community Corrections officers and, above all, you are not to commit further offences during that time.

55If you contravene, that is breach, the Community Corrections Order, either by not complying with any of the conditions or by further offending, the Community Corrections officers will probably bring contravention proceedings.  Contravention of a CCO is an offence in itself and you are liable for a separate punishment for that, but you also must be aware that if you contravene a Community Corrections Order, either by not complying with some of the conditions or by further offending, you can expect to be brought back before this Court, before me, and that my powers vary from just confirming the order, to extending it by its duration or increasing the conditions, or it is open to me or the court exercising these powers, to cancel the Community Corrections Order and re-sentence you on the charges on which it was imposed.

56I thought long and hard about whether to impose the CCO on the summary charges but I have decided not to deal with them that way.  Except for one month cumulation, they are all going to be concurrent with the other, and that will effectively mean they are declared reckoned served already other than that one month cumulation, but the Community Corrections order is imposed on the most serious of the charges, the aggravated burglary for which you would have received a longer sentence of imprisonment than I have imposed, had I not added the Community Corrections Order to it, to give you the chance to come out of prison under supervision and undergo the rehabilitative programs as well as some paid community work as further penalty.

57Do you understand all of those terms and conditions, Mr Spokes?

58ACCUSED:  Yes, Your Honour.

59HER HONOUR:  Do you agree to comply?

60ACCUSED:  Yes, Your Honour.

61HER HONOUR:  All right.  You can - or the one final thing I need to say is what I would have imposed as sentences had you not pleaded guilty to these charges.  It is an artificial exercise because I have taken into account what I see as some genuine insight and remorse, but if you had not pleaded guilty but been found guilty of all of these charges after a trial on the indictment - and it is an artificial exercise here because I am dealing with summary charges too.  What I state for the record is that if I were sentencing on all of those charges, I would have imposed a total effective sentence of three years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 21 months.

62You can take a seat while the orders are prepared.  Sorry, I think there was something else that was sought.  Yes.

63MS CHAMPION: Yes, Your Honour. Under the Sentencing Act Your Honour must disqualify Mr Spokes from obtaining a licence.

64HER HONOUR:  About the disqualification.

65MS CHAMPION:  Because Your Honour has convicted him of theft of a car.  It is for a period as long as Your Honour - it is in Your Honour's discretion.

66HER HONOUR:  Just remind me.  I did have it.  I said it before, the date that the - there is already a disqualification order that lasted four years from 2012.  That is what is the basis of the charges.  It is probably January 2012, I have got from the - - -

67MS CHAMPION:  Yes, 10 January 2012, licence cancelled and disqualified for four years.

68HER HONOUR:  All right.  So that time is up.

69MS CHAMPION:  Order effective from the - yes, 10 January 2012.

70HER HONOUR:  What I am going to do, Mr Spokes, to hopefully facilitate your rehabilitation and your ability to get work and attend these various programs that are part of the order and, indeed, the unpaid community work, I am going to impose only a short disqualification. You have had four years disqualified, not that you paid much attention to that apparently, but I am going to give you the chance to be back on the road with a licence. You have got to apply for it and obtain it, quite soon after your release but that may assist your rehabilitation at an age where you may take having a licence more seriously. I do note that you have got a long history of driving offences of different types, including unlicensed driving.  What I am going to do is impose an order - it dates from today, does it not, the disqualification?  What I am going to do is impose a disqualification period on the licence of one month commencing today, with conviction.  I have taken into account in that regard that I have imposed not only imprisonment but cumulated a month of it for the driving whilst disqualified charges, although I think the theft of the motor vehicle required the disqualification also, did it not?

71MS CHAMPION:  Yes, that is the (indistinct).

72HER HONOUR:  So it goes on that charge and on the summary charges,
Ms Champion, or only on the theft of the motor vehicle?

73MS CHAMPION:  I am sorry, what exactly was Your Honour's question?

74HER HONOUR:  Does the disqualification on the licence go on the - it is on the theft of motor vehicle charge.

75MS CHAMPION:  Theft of motor vehicle charge.

76HER HONOUR:  Does it also have to go on the driving whilst disqualified or not?

77MS CHAMPION:  There is no mandatory disqualification.

78HER HONOUR:  No mandatory one.

79MS CHAMPION:  There is a discretionary disqualification open on those other charges.

80HER HONOUR:  I will place it on those other charges - on the two charges of driving whilst disqualified also but it is the same period so it is not going to have any different effect.  On the CCO we need an address that Mr Spokes will be living at.  Which do we think it is?

81MS BURT:  Could I just confirm his instructions about that?

82HER HONOUR:  Yes.

83MS BURT:  Your Honour, his father's address, which is15 Gilchrest Way in Pakenham.

84HER HONOUR:  If it is going to be any different you tell the Community Corrections officers on the first time you are seeing them.  I repeat to you, Mr Spokes, that is within two days of being released.  On my calculation you - well, I have not gone through which months of the year, it depends which are 31 day months and which are 30 day months, but the period reckoned served is roughly ten months.  So there is approximately a month to go and as the licence disqualification period starts today, you are effectively going to be able to apply for a licence on your release or within days of it.

85Right, I will have that shown to both counsel to check it.  All right, if that has been checked I will ask my Associate to bring that to you to read through and sign your agreement to, Mr Spokes.

86MS BURT:  Could I just assist with that, please?

87HER HONOUR:  Yes.  All right, I have now signed the CCO and now it can be copied.  All right.  There will be copies of those orders given to your counsel, Mr Spokes, and no doubt in due course you will get a copy of the Community Corrections Order.  As I say, you have got roughly a month still to serve.  You can make your plans now but ultimately it is up to you to knuckle down, take advantage of the programs that should be made available to you and see if you can turn your life around.  I understand you have had a difficult background but at the age of 25 you have really got to make the decision which way you want things to go in future and you have got a month to think about it and make plans.

88ACCUSED:  Thank you very much, Your Honour.

89HER HONOUR:  All right, could you remove Mr Spokes from the court, please?

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