Director of Public Prosecutions v Tatlock

[2017] VCC 1483

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-00947

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

TIMOTHY TATLOCK

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MONTGOMERY
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	12 October 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Tatlock
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1483

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr D. Porceddu
For the Accused	Ms R. Avis

HIS HONOUR:

1Timothy Tatlock, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of trafficking in a drug of dependence, not less than a commercial quantity, the drug being Butanediol, and two charges of possessing a drug of dependence, namely methylamphetamine.

2The facts of the matter are set out in the prosecution summary, Exhibit 1.  I will not now refer to the facts.  They are not disputed by your counsel.  Any reader of these reasons can refer to Exhibit 1 to place the sentence in its factual context.

3You have admitted your criminal history and the relevant item on that for my purposes is an appearance at the Ringwood Children's Court on 27 January 2010 on charges of robbery and recklessly cause serious injury.  Without conviction, you were placed on probation for a period of six months.

4The prosecution sentencing submission is that a combination sentence of custody and a community correction order is within the range of sentencing options I have.

5On your behalf, Ms Avis, your counsel, provided written submissions and supplemented them orally.  She tendered a report from Odyssey House and a number of references.  In particular, she submitted:

6(1) That the offending here was low offending.  It was 916.5 grams over the commercial threshold for that particular drug, and then in the circumstances as set out in the prosecution opening, her submission was that by comparison with other offending of this type, it was at the lower end of the range.  I accept that submission.

7(2) She pointed to your plea of guilty, which in the circumstances, I accept is an early plea.  It is an acceptance of responsibility by you for your behaviour and has saved the court the time and cost of a trial in front of a jury, and you will be given the appropriate discount.

8(3) In relation to Charges 2 and 3, she submitted that the possession was for personal use and I accept that.

9(4) She pointed to the issue of delay.  You were interviewed on 20 November 2015 and you were released pending summons.  The summons did not arrive until 20/06/16, a delay of seven to eight months.  The prosecutor, Mr Porceddu, apart from informing me that he believed there were some issue with the analysis of the drugs, could point to no other reason why there would be such a delay.

10Fortunately for you, you have used that delay to good effect.  I take into account the fact that you have had it hanging over your head for nearly two years now and you have used the time to rehabilitation yourself.

11(5) Your counsel relied on your efforts to rehabilitate yourself.  You have spent some 21 months in Odyssey House and she tendered a report from them dated 10 October 2017.  In that, it sets out some of the rules that were in place at Odyssey House during that time and the program that you undertook.  That report was added to by your father in the witness box. He set out the nature of your residency at Odyssey House, which I accept was of a restrictive nature.

12In the report, it said that you in group spaces, offered insightful and constructive feedback to peers and you demonstrated a care and trust for peers, and you progressed up the various levels at Odyssey House to a position where you were at Level 3, appointed as a house coordinator, which is a position of responsibility in relation to other residents.

13You moved out of Odyssey in June 2017 and attend now as an aftercare client.  The staff at Odyssey House believe that you are worthy of special consideration.  You have expressed remorse and a strong commitment to not re-offending and not relapsing into drug usage.

14You were not at Odyssey House because of a bail condition.  No doubt, because you been interviewed by the police for these matters that prompted you to seek treatment at Odyssey House so you could do something about your drug problem.

15In relation to Odyssey House, I was referred to a case of Akoka v R [2017] VSCA 214 where the Court of Appeal considered the question of what credit should be given to time spent in institutions such as Odyssey House. After reviewing a number of authorities from other states, the Court of Appeal said “that the approach adapted in the manner discussed below will require Victorian sentencing courts to give greater emphasis then in the past to the punitive element of residency in a rehabilitation facility such as Odyssey”.

16At paragraph 106, the court sets out what indeed are the core reasons for the course that I am going to be taking here.  The court said,

"As has been demonstrated in the present case, residency at a rehabilitation facility has the potential to significantly assist an offender's rehabilitation.  In particular, such residency may assist an offender to overcome drug dependency and other factors that have contributed to his or her offending and to develop strategies for becoming a law abiding citizen.

These outcomes benefit not only the offender but also the community.  It is in the interests of the community for offenders - particularly young offenders – to reform and make contributions to the community rather than spend their lives in and out of prison for increasingly more serious offending."

17(6) Your counsel set out by way of a reference and also the evidence of your employer, your present situation about employment.

18You are employed by New Plumbing Solutions as a plumber, knowing your background of having drug addiction and offending problems. He was aware that you had attended Odyssey House and is confident that you will continue your present steps towards rehabilitation and he believes you have a long term prospect of continued employment with his organisation.

19(7) Your counsel submitted a number of references from your family and various people who know you.  They all express disappointment at the addiction that you became involved in and all consider that you have been on a long journey. Since you have been at Odyssey House, the writers of the references have the belief that you are on the road to rehabilitation.

20(8) Your counsel set out your personal circumstances in her written plea submission, which unlike many that come before this court, is not that of an impoverished, dysfunctional family background.

21At the time of the offending, you were 22.  You had been to school.  You did a four year plumbing apprenticeship after you left school at the age of 15.

22You started using drugs at 17 with cannabis and amphetamine and by the age of 20, your drug use had so escalated that you lost your employment at that time as a plumber.  Family and friend relationships were affected by your use of drugs.

23(9) Your counsel pointed to the support of your family, friends and your employer as demonstrated by the number of people who are here in court today.

24(10) She relied on your age.  You are a young person.  You were 22 at the time of offending.  Now aged 24.

25In sentencing you, I have to take a number of factors into account.  The basic purposes for which a court may impose a sentence are punishment, general deterrence and specific deterrence.

26General deterrence is an attempt by the court to suggest to others not to involve themselves in this type of offending and that is an important sentencing consideration in drug matters.

27Specific deterrence is aimed at you to convince you not to reoffend.  I am reasonably satisfied that you will not.

28Rehabilitation, denunciation and protection of the community.  In this court, believe me, we are sick and tired of young people coming before us committing serious crimes because of their drug addiction.

29In sentencing you, I must have regard for a range of such as the seriousness of the offending, your culpability for it and your personal circumstances.

30I am required to balance the interest of the community in denouncing criminal conduct, the interest of the community to seek to ensure as far as possible, offenders are rehabilitated into society.  I express my denunciation of your behaviour.

31Particularly when sentencing you, I am satisfied that the elements of general deterrence and specific deterrence and the other matters I have mentioned will be satisfied by the imposition in this case of a community correction order.

32I have taken into account, amongst other things, all the submissions made by your counsel in particular (1), your age, (2), your plea of guilty, (3), most importantly, your efforts of rehabilitation, (4) the support you have from the family and (5), the fact that you are in productive work.

33If one looks at the case of Boulton which is the leading case about community correction order, it is clear that in appropriate cases, the sentencing principles can be satisfied by the imposition of a community correction order.

34I had you assessed for a CCO and have received a report from Rebecca Edwards.  You were assessed at being a medium risk of reoffending and it was recommended that instead of drug treatment, which you have already had, a condition should be imposed that you go into treatment in rehabilitation in relation to mental health.

35After giving consideration of all the matters put before me and particularly taking into account the fact that you had spent 21 months at Odyssey House, I am not going to impose a work condition.  I normally do not when people are put in custody or been on remand for a long time when I put them on a CCO. 

36You have been in a restricted environment.  That is one reason why I am not putting you on a work condition.  The other is that on a work condition, unfortunately you would be mixing with other people who have similar if not more desperate problems than you and you might be reintroduced to the drug world.

37In addition, you have a real job working 40 to 50 hours a week and my belief is that community will be satisfied that if you remain in that job and continue that work, it is a productive outcome for the community.

38I place you a community correction order for a period of three years with conditions for supervision and treatment and rehabilitation in respect of mental health.

39Do I need to do a 6AAA?

40MR PORCEDDU:  No.  No, Your Honour.

41HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  Are there any other orders I need to make?  No?

42MR PORCEDDU:  Your Honour, the disposal order.

43HIS HONOUR:  Yes.

44MR PORCEDDU:  I do not know if it has made its way down to me.

45HIS HONOUR:  I have signed it.

46MR PORCEDDU:  Thank you.  If that has been signed, Your Honour, there is no other orders that are sought.

47HIS HONOUR:  Do you agree with that, Ms Avis?

48MS AVIS:  Yes, Your Honour. 

49HIS HONOUR:  Well, the CCO will be prepared and your client will be asked to sign it if he wants to.

50Mr Tatlock, this order is for a period of three years and of course, there are normal conditions in addition to the ones I have imposed and if you were to breach this order in some way or you were to reoffend, which would be a breach of the order, you will be charged with a breaching offence and brought up for breaching this.

51You will be brought back to the court and if by some chance you do before April of next year, I will still be here.  Otherwise I will not be and you might find you have a less accommodating judicial officer.  So, do not do it.  It is pretty easy.  Keep to it and you will not be brought back.

52But if you do reoffend and just using drugs is a criminal offence.  I know that is a surprise to a lot of people that it actually is.  You will come back before the court and do not expect the court to be particularly sympathetic.

53If you take this order up, Ms Avis.

54MS AVIS:  Yes, Your Honour.

55HIS HONOUR:  Mr Tatlock, you can come out of there thank you.  We have some students coming up who I have got to talk to shortly, so I will be much obliged if you did not stay here forever.

56MS AVIS:  Yes.

57HIS HONOUR:  I will return when I am needed.  But otherwise, the court will be adjourned until 9.30 tomorrow.

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