Director of Public Prosecutions v Tran

[2017] VCC 1183

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

AT LATROBE VALLEY
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-01407

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

HUNG TRAN

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Latrobe Valley
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	24 August 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Tran
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1183

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 N. Hutton
For the Accused	Ms C. McGrath

HIS HONOUR: 

1You can stay seated, Mr Tran.  Hung Manh Tran, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of cultivating a crop of cannabis in not less than a commercial quantity.  That carries a maximum penalty of 25 years' imprisonment.

2You are still only 21 years of age and are therefore to be treated as a young offender.  You have no prior convictions and you pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonable opportunity.  You must of course get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty.  As to remorse, I have got no idea.

3I accept for these sentencing purposes that you are not an organiser of what I am about to describe and were simply placed there as a crop sitter.  This is a very common occurrence in rural Victoria, it would seem these days, and people do have to be deterred from conducting themselves in such a way.

4A summary of the offending is that on 11 April 2017 police executed a search warrant in Traralgon.  It was a five bedroom, double storey brick veneer house, and when they went in you tried to get out onto the roof through a window.  When police were able to get you back into the house you were handcuffed.

5A search of the house I do not need to go into here, revealed a cannabis crop in some eight rooms.  It amounted to 265 cannabis plants weighing a total of 55.36 kilograms.  A commercial quantity, of course, is 100 plants and
25 kilograms.

6There was an electrical bypass but you have not been charged with theft.

7You were taken by police to be interviewed and you declined to be interview, which is your right, and accordingly there is no early explanation before me as to how all this came about.

8A gaol sentence in this situation is inevitable; general deterrence demands that.  In your situation I have no doubt that you will be deported, and accordingly specific deterrence will have very little to do with it.

9There must also be proper attention to denunciation and appropriate punishment.  The situation of you rehabilitating is a matter for you.  You certainly will not be reoffending in this country, and I am told that going back to Vietnam as a convicted drug criminal is not a very pleasant experience.

10In any event, you came to Australia in November of 2013 as a 17-year-old.  Your family of origin in Vietnam is a mother, father and two sisters, and they still reside there.  When you got here you undertook a one year English course.  You then enrolled in a Diploma of Business at La Trobe University and were working as a waiter at a reception centre in St Albans.  Your mother sustained injuries and you from that point refused to accept financial support from your family, so you say.  You discontinued study, and you then found employment on a cucumber farm and then worked in a laundry.

11You were clearly approached and entered into this, not that I am making any findings as to how it all came about.  I rarely if ever believe the instructions in matter such as this.  I understand how all this works and threats to family and things like that, so you just get sentenced in a vacuum as far as I am concerned.

12Your age, your plea of guilty, your cooperation insofar as the court is concerned, if not the authorities, means that a sentence should be mitigated.  I take into account the deportation, not in the sense that you will be deported as such, but the aspirations you may have had when you came to this country are now going to be crushed and you will undergo the sentence with the expectation of deportation.

13Because of your youth I am going to give you an opportunity for parole, which will effectively mean an opportunity to be deported at an earlier stage than might otherwise have been the case.

14Accordingly, in simple terms on the charge of cultivation, two years, minimum term of 12 months.  I declare 135 days be reckoned as having been served under this sentence.

15Pursuant to s.6AAA, but for your plea of guilty you would have been sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of three years and 18 months.

16So Mr Interpret, it is two years with 12 months, with 135 days served.  The 6AAA if you had tried to fight it, would have been three years with 18 months as a minimum term.  All right?

17There are no other orders I have to make?  I have done the others, haven't I?

18MR HUTTON:  Correct.

19HIS HONOUR:  Did you want to say anything?

20MS McGRATH:  Sorry, Your Honour?

21HIS HONOUR:  Did you want to say something?

22MS McGRATH:  No.

23HIS HONOUR:  No.

24MS McGRATH:  If the court pleases.

25HIS HONOUR:  No, that is all right.  As long as he gets his - I do not know if you want to talk to him or not?

26MR McGRATH:  I might have a quick - can I?

27HIS HONOUR:  Yes, the interpreter is just taking him through the sentencing remarks.  Thanks for that.  All right, just hold him for a second so his counsel can just speak to him for a minute, if you would, fellas.

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