Director of Public Prosecutions v Toulmin
[2014] VCC 587
•1 May 2014
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication) |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-12-00952
| DPP |
| v |
| Craig Toulmin |
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JUDGE: | His Honour Judge Maidment | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 16 April 2014 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 1 May 2014 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v. Toulmin | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2019] VCC 587 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Mr P. Pirrie | |
| For the Accused | Mr C. Dane |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Craig Andrew Toulmin you can stay seated for the time being. You have pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking in a drug of dependence, namely methylamphetamine between 18 October and 31 December 2010 and you have admitted a number of prior convictions and court appearances. I note that none of those involve offences of involving drugs other than alcohol and by and large they are concerned with driving offences, albeit some of them quite serious driving offences and alcohol or a combination of the two. So although you have a very poor record in terms of your driving and use of alcohol you have no convictions of any kind which bear upon the sentencing exercise in relation to this trafficking offence.
2 The prosecution has relied upon a plea opening which is Exhibit A and that was read on the last occasion that you were before me. I do not propose to read it again, but it contained a rendition of the facts which are agreed as being the basis upon which I can proceed to sentence you. It shows that on three occasions you attended the premises of Mr Weightman in Ballarat and there engaged with him encouraging him and to some extent assisting him with the manufacture of methylamphetamine. You also engaged with him in testing or tasting the product, namely methylamphetamine during the manufacturing process, or the cooking process and you also received some of the product for sale and supply to others as well as use by yourself.
3 It seems to be accepted that at that particular time you had acquired a methylamphetamine or ice habit, having been introduced to that substance by Mr Weightman. He was also a harness racing trainer and you having been disqualified were in the same position as him because he also had been disqualified. It seems that it was partly through that and partly through visiting your former wife in the Ballarat area in order to see your children and support them, that you came in to contact with, or renewed your contact with Mr Weightman and then became involved first of all in the use of ice and secondly in the manufacture of speed or ice.
4
You have pleaded guilty to an offence of trafficking.
Mr Weightman was found guilty by a jury of an offence of trafficking in a commercial quantity of methylamphetamine as well as pleading guilty to an offence of trafficking on a particular date. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of ten years with a non parole period of six and a half years. I do not regard your involvement in the criminal enterprise to which Mr Weightman was a central figure as being anything close to the same order of criminality as that of Mr Weightman. Nevertheless it is a serious offence and you attended on three separate occasions during which quite substantial amounts of methylamphetamine were prepared for sale.
5
About 4.5 ounces on the first of those three occasions, between two and
4 ounces on the second of those occasions and something in the order of
8 ounces on the third of those occasions and clearly the sums of money that could have been obtained from the sale of those amounts was substantial. The value put on the amount manufactured by the prosecution is somewhere between $162,400 and $184,800. That is not to say that the evidence suggests that you were to benefit from this offending on that sort of scale but I think it is reasonably to be inferred that you did during the period in which you were engaged in this trafficking reap some benefit, not just in terms obtaining methylamphetamine for your own use, but in terms of selling the drug for profit.
6 Turning to matters personal to you, your counsel provided me with an outline of submissions which is Exhibit 1 and particularly usefully a report from Central Melbourne Psychology Mr Patrick Newton dated 23 January 2014 which sets out a good deal about your personal history and the circumstances which brought you to this offending conduct. He does note that you show signs of anxiety and depression or did at the time of his examination, but it is not suggested that any mental impairment other than perhaps the stimulant use disorder that arose from your use of methylamphetamine was relevant to or played any, or any significant part in your offending conduct and therefore the Verdins principles well known in these courts, are not said to be applicable in your particular case.
7 However, what the history which is set out in the report shows and that was I think supplemented by submissions made on your behalf by Mr Dane, is that you have been a battler. You left school at an early age having completed only Year 6 and you started work as a shearer and worked as a cattle drover for some time before getting in to training of horses for harness racing. It seems that that has been your major interest in life and that you have achieved a measure of success in that at least until you became suspended in 2009 and it was during your period or periods of suspension that this offence was committed.
8 You obviously had some learning difficulties at school and it seems that you have difficulties with reading and writing. However, Mr Newton points out that you are otherwise an intelligent person and I have no doubt that you have plenty of street smarts as well as a level of intelligence which should have led you to know better than to engage in this kind of conduct, even though you may well have been feeling extremely low as a result of the period of suspension from your training in the harness racing industry in Tasmania.
9 You were married to Joanne for a number of years and you have two children aged I think ten and 14. They are now living with your ex wife Joanne in the Ballarat area and attending (indistinct) schools in Ballarat. You have supported your ex wife and you still have a good relationship with her and you have supported your children. As I understand it you pay the mortgage for her modest home in the Ballarat area and that enables her to work two jobs in order to provide the education that she indicates in her letter which is also provided to me, she thinks that they deserve and all of those matters are very much to your credit. More recently you have entered in to a new relationship. That seems to be promising and bodes well for your prospects of rehabilitation.
10 You are not yet able to return to training although as I understand it your former training activities are really being conducted by your father. As I understand from Mr Dane's submissions you are at least able now to drive harness racing horses and have got your licence to drive back. Whether in the future you get your harness racing licence back is uncertain but I have no doubt that the sentence I impose upon you will have some influence upon your prospects of convincing the governing body of the industry in Tasmania to allow you to get back in to harness racing, if not now, at least at some stage in the not too distant future. As I understand it a term of imprisonment would prima face preclude you from getting a licence back, but if that sentence were suspended then it would be a matter of discretion for the board to allow you back in to training.
11 I think that from all the material I have seen and the efforts that you have made since your offending conduct, to turn your life around, that it is unlikely that you will offend again, at least offend in this sort of way again. I think that with your continued vigilance against becoming involved in the use of illicit substances in particular ice again, you have every prospect of staying out of trouble in the future and your prospects of rehabilitation therefore are good. No doubt your continuing relationship with Nicole will help that and it is to be hoped that all will be well in that regard. I understand she has a zero tolerance as far as the use of illicit substances is concerned and that too will help you to keep away from that sort of activity.
12 You would know now of course, that any chance of you getting your licence to train back would be completely dashed if you were to commit an offence of this kind again. You are only 42 years of age now and you have got a good training career ahead of you if you can keep on the straight and narrow. Now ordinarily as I say offences of trafficking in methylamphetamine, especially amounts that are of the scale of your activity would attract an immediate custodial sentence. There is no doubt that this court does have a duty to denounce conduct of that kind, to punish those who are engaged in that sort of conduct adequately and to deter others from engaging in that kind of conduct.
13 I think it is necessary to impose a sentence which helps to deter you and in particular others. All of that of course has to be balanced against your prospects of rehabilitation. I think it is very much in the interests of the community that you are rehabilitated. It is not suggested that your family circumstances and your continuing support of your children amount to exceptional circumstances, but I think it is a measure of you as a man that you have been supportive of your family and I think that it will help you with your rehabilitation to be in a position to continue to do that. I am conscious of the fact that the sentence imposed upon Mr Weightman was a very substantial sentence and that the sentence that I have in mind to impose upon you would be regarded as very considerably less than his. But as I say I think your role was very significantly less than his and indeed not significantly more than that of two other persons that I sentenced who were associated with the broader criminal enterprise to which Mr Weightman attached himself.
14 I therefore do not regard the sentence that I intend to impose upon you as disparate from the sentences that I have imposed on those other people. I indicated that I had in mind to fine you $10,000. I have also come to the conclusion that it is necessary to impose a term of imprisonment upon you, but I propose to suspend that completely, so the sentence will be hanging over your head for a couple of years. You will know that if you were to commit any offence punishable by imprisonment during that period you would almost certainly have to serve the sentence that I intend to impose. I am only entitled to suspend a sentence of up to three years of imprisonment. I first must look at the sentence that is appropriate for your offending conduct and then determine whether it should be suspended or imposed immediately. I have reached the conclusion that it can be suspended but I regard the punishment necessary to meet your offending conduct as requiring me to impose a fine as I say, of $10,000 in addition to that sentence of imprisonment.
15
I am ready to impose sentence upon you. Would you stand please.
Craig Andrew Toulmin, for the offence of trafficking in methylamphetamine I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for a period of three years and that term of imprisonment will be suspended for a period of two years. I also fine you $10,000 and I will allow you six months to pay that fine. Had it not been for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to imprisonment for a period of four years with a non parole period of three years. The prosecution has also applied for an order for you to supply a forensic sample, that is a scraping from the inside of your mouth or a blood sample and you will be required therefore to attend a police station for that purpose during the period of some weeks hence.
16 The police station I think would have to be in Victoria but no doubt that can be arranged and perhaps you could indicate which police station would be most convenient for you to attend for that purpose.
17 ACCUSED: Probably Ballarat.
18 HIS HONOUR: All right well I will draw up the order in those terms. You should realise that when you attend the authorised police officer will first ask you to provide a scraping from the inside of your mouth with a cotton bud or something of that nature. If you comply, all well and good. If you fail to do so the officer will be authorised to take a blood sample from you and may use reasonable force for that purpose. Do you follow? I am sure you will not put them to that trouble.
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19 HIS HONOUR: All right, any other orders Mr Pirrie?
20 MR PIRRIE: No, no Your Honour.
21 HIS HONOUR: All right, well you can leave the dock now. I'm just going to draw up a order for the forensic sample. It's 20 Dana Street I think.
22 MR DANE: 20 Dana Street Ballarat Centre Your Honour 3350.
23 HIS HONOUR: Yes. Three copies enough Mr Pirrie?
24 MR PIRRIE: Yes Your Honour.
25 HIS HONOUR: All right those orders are now signed and I think I'll leave the Bench for a few minutes because the counsel need a little bit of time I think to prepare themselves for the next matter.
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