Director of Public Prosecutions v Teplin

[2017] VCC 1423

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-00955

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

NICHOLAS TEPLIN

---

JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MONTGOMERY
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	3 October 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Teplin
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1423

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
---

Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr A. Trotman
For the Accused	Ms P. Marcou

HIS HONOUR:

1Nicholas James Teplin, you have pleaded guilty to two charges of armed robbery and have admitted your criminal record, which begins in 2001 and until this offending, ceased in 2006. It included convictions for drug offending, dishonesty, including aggravated burglary with an offensive weapon, recklessly cause injury and common assault.  If that record had been more current, I suspect I would not be taking the course I am about to take.

2There are no victim impact statements in the matter.

3The facts of the matter are contained in Exhibit 1, the prosecution summary.  It is agreed to by your counsel and I will not refer to it in any great detail, apart from recounting that on 20 February, you went into two shops in Port Melbourne with a metal pole, a very short one as far as I could see on the video, and committed two armed robberies in relation to those premises. A total of $980 cash was taken from the cash registers.

4As I remarked at the end of the playing of the CCTV footage of those two armed robberies, in my view, the armed robberies are towards the lower scale of this type of offending.  Of course, that might be a comment on how many of these armed robberies I have looked at in the last number of years, during which offenders such as yourself went behind the cash register in these sorts of stores with much larger knives or machetes and visibly waved them around and threatened the store attendants.

5Your actions, although still serious, I find to be at the lower end of that type of armed robbery, but are still frightening for the two store attendants.

6The prosecution position is that I should impose an immediate custodial sentence.

7On your behalf, your counsel submitted in mitigation:

8(1) That you had entered your plea at the earliest opportunity.  The prosecution agree with that and I accept it, and you will be given the appropriate discount, and a plea of guilty indicates an acceptance of responsibility by you of your behaviour and saves the court the time and costs of a jury trial.

9(2) Your counsel submitted that during the period of approximately seven months that you have been on bail, you have contributed substantially towards rehabilitation and doing something about your drug problem.

10She tendered a report from DayHab, an addiction treatment centre and called a witness from that organisation, Rebecca Walters.  Both the evidence and the report set out what it is you have been doing in that rehab program.

11The writer of the report, Sarah Green, who is the clinical counsellor, said that you had made enormous strides towards recovery whilst a part of their program.  She had seen a remarkable change in your attitude and outlook.  She had detailed that you had been regularly attending alcoholic anonymous and narcotics anonymous, and demonstrated a willingness to engage in the 12 step process of recovery.

12You had been drug tested and remained abstinence from all substances.  She noticed a marked improvement in your physical and mental health, and commented that you appeared to have clear insight about the need to change and turn your life around, and you had the necessary skills to make life changing decisions, earning in the strength to carry these changes out.  She believed you have total commitment to your recovery from addiction and the necessary drive and focus to achieve your goals in life.

13For the next stage of the treatment, it is proposed that you go into another rehab centre called Oxford Houses and in evidence I heard about that.

14(3) Your counsel submitted that the offending was at the lower end of the scale and I have addressed that.

15(4) She set out in her written submissions your personal circumstances.  I will not recount those in any detail.

16You are now 33.  Your mother, who is in court, is now 66.  Your father is older and is suffering from Alzheimer's.  You have been caring for him.

17Your brother, Leonard gave evidence.  He in fact has been the one, as I understand it, paying for your rehab treatment.  I was impressed by his evidence and the support that he outlined that the family have offered to you and their determination that you should change your life and their optimism that in fact you would do so.  He said that you had changed in personality and also physically.  The family were devastated by these matters.

18You attended Mount Scopus School until Year 8, then went to Caulfield Grammar for Years 9 and 10 and left school at the age of 15.

19You were introduced to drugs from your peers.  You started using cannabis at age 14.  You used amphetamines from age 17 and first smoked heroin at age 15.

20Prior to this offending in between the years 2009 and 2015, you in fact were working at an I.T recruitment centre, earning reasonably good money until you seriously lapsed into a regular and daily use of heroin.  You ceased employment in 2015 because you were unable to manage your drug use.

21(5) Your counsel submitted on the basis of the evidence of rehabilitation that you had good prospects of such.

22(6) You dealt with your prior convictions, which I have already mentioned and pointed out they were largely historical.

23(7) She pointed to the family support you have, as demonstrated by their attendance in court, the evidence of your brother and the financial assistance they have been providing to you.

24After consideration of those matters, I ask for a community corrections assessment report.  You are assessed as being at a medium risk of reoffending and assessed as being suitable.  It was suggested that because of the injury to your right leg, if I imposed unpaid community work, that I credit any treatment and rehabilitation go towards community work hours.

25In sentencing you, I have to take into account a number of factors.

26The basic purposes for which a court may impose a sentence of punishment, general deterrence, both specific and general rehabilitation, denunciation and protection of the community.

27In sentencing you, I must have regard to a range of matters, such as the seriousness of the offending, your culpability for it, your personal circumstances and the effect the offending has had on victims.

28I am required to balance the interests of the community in denouncing criminal conduct with the interests of the community to seek to ensure as far as possible offenders are rehabilitated into society.  I express my denunciation of this behaviour.  Communities are well and truly sick of people with drug habits walking into soft targets like 7-Elevens and committing this sort of pathetic armed robbery.

29I have taken into account all the submissions made by both parties.  Your counsel submitted that I could look at a community corrections order as being within the range of my sentencing options and she referred me to the well-known case of this on Boulton v The Queen.  I have taken the view that the sentencing requirements of general deterrence and specific deterrence can be met by the imposition of a community corrections order in this case.

30I am going to make it clear to you that the reasons why I am doing that are twofold.

31There is a gap in your offending and the offending here as I have said is at the lower end of the scale, although serious.

32The support that your family have provided to you.  Take it from me, most people in your position come into court with no one, apart from the barrister supported by Legal Aid making submissions up on the spot.  Absolutely no support at all and a court is usually left with no other option but to gaol them.

33In your case, you are fortunate in that you have the support of your family and through that, you have been able to demonstrate that you can overcome your drug problem.  I urge you to take advantage of the opportunity I am affording to you.  If you do not, well, you will come back to me and you should not complain if I gaol you.

34Taking into account all those matters, I place you on a community corrections order for a period of two years, with 200 hours community work.

35I accept that the recommendation of Corrections that any treatment and rehabilitation you undertake can be credited as hours towards the community work.

36The conditions are supervision, treatment and rehabilitation in relation to your drug problem, which will include the attendance at Oxford Houses, and treatment and rehabilitation as to programs to reduce offending.

37I impose a special condition that you continue to attend on a regular basis alcoholic and narcotics anonymous.  If you were to re-offend by way of taking an illegal drug, that breaches this order and would come back before me.

38Are there any other orders I need to make?

39MR TROTMAN:  Your Honour, I have a continuation of the disposal and restitution orders.

40HIS HONOUR:  Yes, I will sign those so they are made.

41MR TROTMAN:  As Your Honour pleases.

42HIS HONOUR:  You can sit down for a moment while that order is prepared, Mr Teplin.

43MR TROTMAN:  And just 6AAA, Your Honour.

44HIS HONOUR:  All right.  I am never sure whether I should make it or not.

45But I will declare pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act that if you had proceeded to trial and you were convicted by a jury, you would have received a sentence of at least five years with a non-parole of three and a half years.

46The two special conditions are, you enter and continue the program at Oxford Houses and continue to attend alcoholic and narcotics anonymous on a regular basis in addition to the other conditions.

47Ms Marcou, if you would like to take that up to your client?

48MS MARCOU:  Yes, Your Honour.

49HIS HONOUR:  See if he wants to sign it.

50MR TROTMAN:  As Your Honour pleases.

51HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  Mr Teplin, you have signed this saying you understand the effect and conditions of the order and consent to it being made.  Is that correct?

52OFFENDER:  Yes.

53HIS HONOUR:  You may leave the dock and thank you both of you and I will deal with the next case.

54COUNSEL:  As Your Honour pleases.

‑ ‑ ‑