Director of Public Prosecutions v Stibilj

[2024] VCC 2038

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA

Revised

Not Restricted

Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-24-00526

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JAN STIBILJ

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CHETTLE
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	27 November 2024, 12 December 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:	12 December 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Stibilj
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 2038

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms O. Richwol	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr J. Hurley	Stary Norton Halphen

HIS HONOUR:

1       Jan Stibilj, you have pleaded guilty after accepting a sentence indication given by me to an indictment containing four charges: Charge 1, armed robbery; Charge 2, possession of methylamphetamine; Charge 3, possessing identification information that related to 55 individuals; Charge 4, failing to provide passwords as per an order of a police officer. You also pleaded guilty to one rolled up summary offence of dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime.

2       The facts of your offending are set out in the summary of prosecution opening for sentence indication hearing (Exhibit A) which has been adopted as the opening for your plea.  I incorporate that document into these reasons for sentence.  Your counsel informed me that I could treat that document as an agreed statement of fact and with the amendments that were made when it was read as to your role in the armed robbery. I sentence you on the basis of the facts set out therein.

3       In brief, on 9 July 2023, you were involved in an armed robbery that saw you and a co-accused steal $9,800 from a man who had come to sell you mobile phones.  It is accepted by the parties and the Crown that your role was lesser than that of your co-accused and that you only became aware of the knife that was used by your co-accused when that knife was produced.  You had been party to an agreement to rob, which turned into an armed robbery when your co-accused produced the knife and I am proceeding to sentence on the basis of that concession by the prosecution and that agreed statement of facts.

4       You have admitted a relatively lengthy prior criminal history.  The significant factor about that prior criminal history is that remained offence free for some 16 years between 2001 and 2017.  Significantly, you were involved in a serious motor car accident in 2009 that has left you with a cognitive impairment, a permanent condition which has relevance to sentencing you for these offences.

5       Given the fact that you have served 358 days in custody not counting today the sentence I propose to impose is one that will see you eligible for parole within a couple of months.  Whether you get parole or not is a matter for the Parole Board.  However it is to be noted that you have been drug-free whilst in custody and I was provided today with drug screens which confirm your drug-free status.  Clearly your prospects of rehabilitation, and your future depend upon your ability to control your drug use. 

6       Your prior criminal history as set out and admitted by you has a strong connection to the use of drugs.  You have drug trafficking and possession charges on your record, and I accept that there is a nexus between your self-medication with methamphetamine and your offending and that that nexus needs to be broken.  It hopefully has been broken by the time you have spent in custody on these matters and others.  You have been in custody now since 9 August last year, not only on remand in respect of these matters, but for other sentences that you have served.  That represents a significant time in custody.

7       I have had regard to the submissions of both the prosecution and your counsel in arriving at an appropriate sentence for you.  General deterrence is the most significant sentencing factor.  Anyone who does what you did needs to know they will normally go to gaol and for a long time, but I have reduced the sentences that I would otherwise impose upon you to reflect the matters urged upon me by Mr Hurley on your behalf.  I have also had regard to principles of totality and cumulation in coming to an appropriate total sentence for you, particularly given[ there are significantly two relevant mitigating factors on your behalf.

8       First is your pleas of guilty.  And although they were not entered at an early stage they do have significant utilitarian value and it has saved the community the cost of a trial.  And they represent your acceptance of responsibility for your offending.  You are entitled to and shall receive a discount to reflect a reduction in sentence to reflect those pleas of guilty.  The second and more significant factor is your cognitive impairment, that your ability to think rationally and reasonably and plan what you are doing in your life is impaired and your condition makes you unsuitable for the expression of general deterrence, even though your prior history demonstrates that you need to be somewhat deterred from doing it again. I am dealing with an instrument that is not suitable for the purpose.

9       That being said, balancing all the factors for the reasons I indicated on the sentencing indication on all charges you are convicted.  Nothing other than a term of imprisonment is appropriate.

10     On Charge 1, armed robbery, you are sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.

11     On Charge 2, possession of methamphetamine, drug of dependence, you are sentenced to one month imprisonment.

12     On Charge 3, possession of identification information, you are sentenced to
six months' imprisonment.

13     And On Charge 4, failing to comply with a direction to assist, you are sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

14     Having regard to principles of totality and cumulation, I order that three months of the sentence imposed on Charge 3 and one month of the sentence imposed on Charge 4 be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed on Charge 1, which I declare to be the base sentence.  On the related summary offence you are sentenced to three months' imprisonment which will be served concurrently.  That is an effective term of imprisonment of 22 months and I order that you serve 14 months before being eligible for parole.

15     I indicated pursuant to s6AAA that but for your pleas of guilty I would have imposed an effective term of imprisonment of four years with a non-parole period of three. I declare 358 days of the sentence I have just imposed not including today has already been served by way of PSD.

16     I regret and apologise for the brevity in these remarks, due to the limited time we have the prison videolink.

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