Director of Public Prosecutions v Stankovski

[2023] VCC 897

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 21-02126
      CR 22-01388

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

VASKO STANKOVSKI

---

JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE LAURITSEN
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	16 May 2023
DATE OF SENTENCE:	1 June 2023
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Stankovski
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2023] VCC 897

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---

Subject:CRIMINAL LAW

Catchwords: Charges of theft and handling stolen goods – calculated efforts of offending – offending whilst on bail – prior criminal history – discount on plea of guilty – poor prospects of rehabilitation – application of s 16(3C) of the Sentencing Act 1991

Legislation Cited:      Sentencing Act 1991

Cases Cited:Worboyes v R [2021] VSCA 169

Sentence:                  37 months imprisonment. Non‑parole period of 25 months imprisonment

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms M. Zammit	The Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr C. Nikakis	Haines and Polites Lawyers

HIS HONOUR:

Introduction

1Mr Stankovski, you pleaded guilty to 4 charges of theft, and 7 charges of handling stolen goods in the form of retaining or dishonest retention of those goods and 2 related summary charges. The indictable charges appear in 2 indictments, L12025983.1 and L11903600. For convenience, I will call them first and second indictments.

2The document which is called the 'Prosecution opening for plea' describes the circumstances of your offending. Your counsel agrees with its contents except you deny involvement in a criminal syndicate with Mr Robinson and Mr Curry and using the Diggers Rest Farm to re-birth motor vehicles. The prosecution accept these denials.

Circumstances

Charge 1 on the first indictment

3On 28 March 2019 a Hino tow truck, registration ending 937 was stolen. On 14 December 2019 the truck was parked 100 metres from your co-accused's home, Paul Greto. On 27 March 2020 Mr Greto used the truck to steal a bobcat loader. On 3 May 2020 Mr Greto drove the truck in Sunbury, he was seen by 2 police members. It was displaying false number plates ending 5ZQ.

4Since Mr Greto was unlicenced, the police seized the truck. Owing to the false registration plates and the replacement of the vehicle identification number, it took a forensic examination to discover the true identity of the truck as that stolen on 28 March 2019.

5On 3 June 2020 you contacted a police member and demanded the return of the truck, asserting it belonged to you. Thereafter, Exhibit A records a series of phone calls between you and Mr Greto over attempts, especially your attempts, to recover the truck from the police.

6On 16 June 2020, you made two calls to a police member. In the second call, you hinted at legal action saying, 'If worse comes to worse, I'll have to get my lawyers involved because I want my truck back'[1].  

[1] Exhibit A at [28].

7The above circumstances constitute Charge 1 on the first indictment, a charge of handling stolen goods.

Charge 2 on L12025983.1

8You were aware stolen property was stored at a farm in Diggers Rest. In relation to the bobcat stored there, on 4 and 9 June 2020 you and Mr Greto spoke. Your statements link you to the bobcat.

9These matters constitute Charge 2 on the first indictment, a charge of handling stolen goods, being the bobcat.

Charge 3 on L12025983.1

10Charge 3 on the first indictment. On 22 July 2020 Mr Greto told you of a call from a person called Rhys who wanted to buy a 'machine'. You and Mr Greto decided to steal a 'couple' from Kennards.  

11On 26 July 2020 at 10.40 pm you and Mr Greto went to the premises of Kennard Hire in Ravenhall and stole a brick elevator. You also stole a vehicle identification number plate from an excavator.

12These circumstances constitute Charge 3 on the first indictment, a charge of theft of an excavator and a VIN plate, which is a rolled-up charge.  

Charge 4 on L12025983.1

13Moving to Charge 4 on the original first indictment. On 31 July 2020 a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution motor vehicle, registration ending 8AP was stolen from Dandenong. You arranged with a woman to leave this vehicle at her home. With others, you drove the Lancer to this woman's address in Kingsbury and parked it in the driveway. Its number plates were removed and it was hidden under a car cover.

14On 25 August 2020 the police found the Lancer in the driveway. Since the vehicle identification number plate had been removed, it was only identified through its engine number.  

15These circumstances constitute Charge 5 on the original first indictment, the dishonest retention of stolen goods, being the Lancer Evolution.

Charge 5 on L12025983.1

16Charge 5 on the original first indictment. On 3 August 2020 you and Mr Greto went to a construction site in Sunshine. There, you stole a Dingo mini loader. You took it away on a trailer and parked it about 30 metres from your home. The police recovered this item that night.

17This constitutes Charge 6 on the original first indictment, a charge of theft of a Dingo mini loader.

Charge 6 on L12025983.1

18Charge 6 on the original first indictment. On 4 August 2020 you spoke to Mr Greto advising him of the police recovering the loader and trailer. You said they were able to do so because Mr Greto had left a false number plate on the trailer. The plate belonged to a Holden Commodore.

19This constitutes Charge 7 on the original indictment, a charge of handling stolen goods, being the trailer.

Charge 7 on L12025983.1

20Charge 7 on that indictment. On 15 August 2020 police members saw a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution parked in a carpark at a hotel in Eltham. Owing to its condition they suspected it had been stolen.

21Shortly afterwards you approached the police claiming the vehicle was yours, having bought it from a named person. The police contacted this person who advised the vehicle had been his but had been burnt out. This vehicle had been reborn using the chassis number of the burnt out vehicle. 

22This constitutes Charge 8, a charge of dishonest retention of stolen goods, being the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution.  

Charge 8 on L12025983.1

23Charge 8 on the original first indictment. On 25 August 2020 the police searched your home in Ivanhoe. They found various items including a trailer, registration ending 199 which had been stolen in September 2017. This constitutes Charge 9 on the original first indictment, a charge of dishonest retention of stolen goods, being the trailer.

Charge 1 on L11903600

24On 24 or 25 July 2020 a Nissan Navara, registration ending 621 was stolen. On 29 July, you asked Mr Greto whether he wanted to buy a Nissan Navara. You told Mr Greto the vehicle had been stolen from the area where Mr Greto lived and should not be used in the area.

25At Mr Greto's request you took photos of the vehicle. Later that day you drove the vehicle to a carpark and met Mr Greto who inspected the vehicle. Both of you left the carpark with you driving the vehicle to your home. The police found the vehicle at your home on the next day.

26These circumstances constitutes Charge 1 on the second indictment, a charge of theft of the Navara vehicle.

Charge 3 on L11903600

27When found by the police, the vehicle had false numberplates, ending 2NC.

28This constitutes Charge 3 on that indictment, being handling stolen goods.

Charge 2 on L11903600

29On 30 July 2020 a box trailer was stolen from a motor vehicle while its owner was standing nearby and using his phone. A few hours later, the police found at your home the trailer. 

30These circumstances constitute Charge 2 on the second indictment, theft of the trailer. You were arrested and bailed.

Arrest and interview

31You were arrested on 25 August 2020 and interviewed. You said the Hino tow truck was yours and was, in effect, legally obtained. You said you had no basis to think it was stolen. You had innocent explanations for these charges: the hand stamps; the mobile phones; the Dingo; the trailer; the Lancer car and the Nissan Navara.

Drive while disqualified

32On 11 February 2020 your licence to drive a motor vehicle was cancelled and you were disqualified from obtaining a licence or permit for 12 months from that date. You drove a motor vehicle on 29 July, 1 August and 25 August 2020.

33These circumstances constitute the rolled-up charge of driving while disqualified.

Committing an indictable offence on bail

34On 30 July 2020, as I have already said, you were arrested, charged and bailed in relation to Charge 2 on the second indictment. Your offending after that day was committed while you were on bail.

35This constitutes the Summary Charge 24, committing an indictable offence while on bail.  

Criminal history

36Between 18 February 1998 and 11 February 2020, you have appeared in a criminal court on 21 occasions and have been found guilty or convicted of 127 charges. Your court appearances have been evenly spread of these years. You have been sentenced to imprisonment on 11 occasions. Your longest sentence was 14 months imposed on 6 August 2018.

37Your offences have been largely ones of dishonesty, drug usage and possession and traffic offences.

38You have 7 previous convictions for the offence of driving while disqualified or suspended.

39In February 2020 you were sentenced to an aggregate sentence of 8 months' imprisonment. This aggregate sentence included two charges of driving while disqualified.

40You have received other aggregate sentences which included this charge or charges of driving while suspended. Strangely, the last time you received an individual sentence for either offence was in August of 2007 when you were sentenced to a month's imprisonment.

41On the face of it, the sentences imposed in the Magistrates' Court have been lenient. They certainly have not deterred you from offending. The sentencing purposes of specific deterrence and protecting the community from you are important.   

Personal

42You are now 43. You were 40 at the time of your offending. Your parents are from Macedonia but you were born in this country. Both have worked long and hard in this country. You have a younger brother. After a difficult relationship with your brother, it is now better. He was injured in a motor vehicle accident and you assisted with his rehabilitation.

43You completed Year 9 at secondary school, leaving during Year 10. After leaving school, you worked for 8 years as a cabinet maker and then as a truck driver. This latter persisted into your early 30s and ceased because of your substance abuse and loss of licence.  

44You were married at 20. You have a son, Jason. He is in Year 12. Your son lives with his mother and has done so after separation. You maintain contact with him. Your marriage broke down because of your worsening use of methylamphetamine and periods of remand and imprisonment.  

45You have two other children through two relationships. They are a daughter, 13 and a son, 5. News of your parenthood came recently through a government department. Before your present remand, you started building a relationship with them.

46Since 26 or 27 you have confined your drug usage largely to methylamphetamine. Although you have ceased using this drug, at times you have returned, with your use leading to re-offending.

47In February 2023 you were struck on the head with a blunt object. You were admitted to a hospital as an inpatient for three days. This has left you with 'memory trouble', as your counsel describes it. It appears this injury remains untreated.

48Although you have been treated for depression and anxiety in the past, you are no longer so treated.

49You are supported by your parents. You intend to live with them after your release from custody. You lived with them while you were on bail for these offences. You hope to build or maintain relationships with your children.

Discussion

50Section 5(1) of the Sentencing Act1991 ('the Sentencing Act') sets out the purposes for which sentences may be imposed:

(a)   to punish the offender to the extent and in a manner which is just in all of the circumstances;

(b)   to deter the offender or other persons from committing offences of the same or a similar character;

(c)   to establish conditions within which it is considered that the offender's rehabilitation may be facilitated;

(d)   to manifest the denunciation of the type of conduct the offender engaged in; and

(e)   to protect the community from the offender.

51Each of those purposes is engaged in your case.

52Section 5(2) of the Sentencing Act sets out several factors which I must consider in sentencing you, where they are relevant.

Maximum penalties

53The maximum penalties for these offences are

(a)   theft – 10 years’ imprisonment;

(b)   handling stolen goods – 15 years’ imprisonment;

(c)   driving while disqualified – a fine of 240 penalty units or 2 years’ imprisonment;

(d)   committing an indictable offence on bail – a fine of 30 penalty units or 3 months’ imprisonment.

Nature and gravity of the offences

54The bulk of these offences occurred after your release from custody in February of 2020 and end in late of August 2020. To an extent, your efforts were calculated, as for example, the removal of vehicle identification number plates and the affixing of incorrect number plates to vehicles. You targeted valuable items of property.

55Your conversations with Mr Greto are indicative of your brazen behaviour. As the conversation on 17 August 2020 shows, the fact of being caught had no salutary effect upon you. It simply meant you learnt from the experience. As you said to Mr Greto[2]:

'… it doesn't matter, bro, but you know what, it's a lesson.

I've lost this but watch with the next ones I get.

At least I know what we're doing now. At least I know that the numbers and the way we done it worked'.

[2] Exhibit A at [94].

Guilty pleas

56In terms of the timing of your pleas of guilty, they occurred in the second half of the process, starting with the laying of the charges and ending with the verdict of a jury trial.

57By pleading guilty you have accepted responsibility for your offending. From the perspective of the criminal justice system, it saves the time and expense of a jury trial. It allows other trials to be listed earlier than would be the case.  

58Judging from the witness lists attached to the indictments, you have spared a very large number of witnesses the burden of giving evidence in a trial. Giving evidence is rarely easy.

59At the present time, a guilty plea deserves a greater discount on sentence than in other times.

60Why this is so was explained in the case of Worboyes v R[3]. Now I will quote in full paragraph 35 from that judgment, I daresay both counsel have heard it on innumerable times but it is for the benefit of Mr Stankovski:

'As is abundantly clear, one of the pernicious effects of the current pandemic is that the lists of the criminal courts in this State have become severely congested. Unacceptable delay in the disposition of criminal cases is endemic. Indeed, it is not an overstatement to say that the system of criminal justice in this State is in crisis, requiring a response from the courts. We therefore consider that, whilst the courts of this State continue to labour under the adverse effects of the pandemic, a sentencing court should view a plea of guilty as carrying with it a greater utilitarian benefit than at other times and in other circumstances, and, concomitantly, as attracting an augmented mitigatory effect on sentence, simply because the plea will benefit the beleaguered administration of justice. Given the unhappy state of the courts' lists, the courts must, in an endeavour to alleviate the strain on the system, encourage those accused who are guilty to so plead. Such encouragement must come from an actual and palpable amelioration of sentence.'

[3] [2021] VSCA 169 at [35]

61Even though this passage appeared in a 2021 judgment, it still remains applicable. This Court and the other criminal courts are still struggling to overcome the backlog of cases built up during the pandemic, and the effects of the virus still affect the functioning of this Court, especially in relation to jury trials.

Prospects of rehabilitation

62Your counsel described your prospects of rehabilitation as, at best, guarded. Your guilty pleas may be some evidence of your remorse but I could not find you are remorseful in the sense that it instils in you a determination not to re‑offend.

63Your criminal history is extensive. Your drug addiction is longstanding. You have family support and somewhere to live once you are released.

64My sentences today represent the longest sentences of imprisonment imposed on you. They may not rehabilitate you but they should have some deterrent effect on you.

65At this stage your prospects of rehabilitation are poor. In so saying, I am ignoring the pending charges against you which will be determined in the Magistrates' Court.

S 16(3C)

66Charges 4 to 8 on the original first indictment were committed while you were on bail. This is an aggravating feature of the offending in those chargers. The effect of the aggravation is set out in section 16(3C) of the Sentencing Act, which provides:

'Every term of imprisonment imposed on a person for an offence committed while released on bail in relation to any other offence or offences must, unless otherwise directed by the court, be served cumulatively on any uncompleted sentence or sentences of imprisonment imposed on that offender, whether before or at the same time as that term.'

67Provisions like this weaken but do not eliminate the principle of totality. I must give it appropriate effect in sentencing you and will do so by partially accumulating the sentences on those charges upon the base sentence.

Sentences

On the first indictment:

68On the original first indictment, using its numbers, on Charge 1, a charge of dishonest retention of the Hino tow truck, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

69On Charge 2, a charge of dishonest retention of a bobcat, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.  

70On Charge 3, a rolled-up charge of stealing an elevator and a vehicle identification number plate, you are sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment.  

71On Charge 4, a charge of dishonest retention of a Lancer vehicle, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

72On Charge 5, a charge of stealing a mini loader, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

73On Charge 6, a charge of dishonest retention of a trailer, you are sentenced to 9 months' imprisonment.

74On Charge 7, a charge of a dishonest retention of a Lancer vehicle, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

75On Charge 8, a charge of dishonest retention of a dual axle trailer, you are sentenced to 9 months' imprisonment.

On the second indictment:

76On the second indictment on Charge 1, a charge of stealing a Nissan Navara vehicle, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.

77On Charge 2, a charge of stealing a trailer, you are sentenced to 9 months' imprisonment.

78On Charge 3, a charge of dishonest retention of two number plates, you are sentenced to 3 months' imprisonment.

79On Summary Charge 18, a rolled-up charge of driving while disqualified, you are sentenced to 6 months' imprisonment.

80On Summary Charge 24, a charge of committing an indictable offence while on bail, you are sentenced to 2 months' imprisonment.

81The base sentence is the sentence on Charge 3 of the original first indictment; 3 months of the sentences on Charges 2,4,5 and 7 on the original first indictment, and Charge 1 on the second indictment and Summary Charge 18; and 2 months of the sentences on Charges 6 and 8 of the first indictment are to be served cumulatively upon themselves.

82The remaining sentences of imprisonment will be served concurrently amongst themselves and the other sentences of imprisonment.

83The total effective sentence is 37 months' imprisonment and I will set a non‑parole period of 25 months' imprisonment.   

Pre-sentence detention

84Excluding today, you have spent 464 days in pre‑sentence detention. I will declare those days as time served under my sentences. 

Licence

85In relation to Charge 1 on the second indictment and Summary Charge 18, any licence or permit you hold to drive a motor vehicle is cancelled, and you are disqualified from obtaining a licence or permit for 24 months in relation to Charge 1, and 6 months in relation to Summary Charge 18.

86Since the periods of disqualification start today, the total period of disqualification is 24 months.  

S 6AAA

87Absent your guilty pleas, I would have sentenced you to a total effective sentence of 54 months' imprisonment.

‑ ‑ ‑