Director of Public Prosecutions v Webster

[2017] VCC 1825

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 17-01273

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

KATRINA WEBSTER

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE SMALLWOOD
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	6 December 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Webster
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1825

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 A. Sharp	The Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Ms J. Grey	Furstenberg Law

Pages 1 - 6

 

 

HIS HONOUR:

1Katrina Webster, you have pleaded guilty to four rolled-up charges of theft.  That crime carries a maximum penalty of ten years' imprisonment. 

2You have pleaded guilty at the earliest reasonably opportunity, and made admissions in your record of interview.

3You are now 44 years of age.

4I accept that your plea of guilty is accompanied by appropriate remorse, and you must also get the utilitarian benefit of that plea of guilty.

5There was a delay of some 12 months between the offending being detected and you being interviewed, and whilst that is of no fault of anybody, I take that into account in the sentencing process.

6Most importantly in your situation, you have no prior convictions. 

7Firstly, pursuant to s.464Z of the Crimes Act, I make an order that you provide a saliva sample, for DNA purposes.  With that order having being made, I must inform you that should you refuse to provide the sample, police may use reasonable force to take it from you, and I also make the compensation order as sought by the Crown, and they are not opposed by your counsel.

8The offending occurred over a period between 2013 and 2016.  Charge 1 involves nearly $28,000, Charge 2 $66,000, Charge 3 $82,000, and Charge 4 $23,000.  They involve a total of 85 separate transactions over that period of time; that is 11 April 2013 to 21 April 2016.

9The history of it is that in that period of time, you were employed as an administrative officer with Modern Roof Restorations; that company specialised in window shutters, roofing, and solar services.  The Head Office is located in South Australia, and has offices in other states.

10You were employed as an administrator in the shutter division in Victoria.  Your duties included reporting on the weekly financials for the shutter division, receiving and recording cash and cheque payments from customers, recording of payments received from the finance company on behalf of clients, and the banking of the weekly takings.

11As part of your duties, you kept cash that you received in a locked drawer in your office, until you compiled the banking and took the cash to the bank.

12On 11 May 2016, the financial controller of the company identified discrepancies with the banking.  The discrepancy was that a customer's account was marked as unpaid to the amount of $4950.  It was confirmed that the customer had paid in cash, and no monies were outstanding.

13The search of the lock drawer in the general office occupied by you, failed to locate the money.  Further examination of the records was made, and you were then approached about three transactions that were identified as false.  In response to that you said, "I just couldn't stop".  You said you did not know how much money had been taken.

14A full financial audit was then conducted, and as I said, the total amount of cash payments missing was $199,892.70.  It is for that figure, less $500, that you are to be effectively sentenced by way of, as I discussed with counsel, an aggregate sentence.

15The rest of the material in the Crown opening will remain on file, I do not really need to go into it here.  What has happened is over a period of some three years, on 85 separate occasions, you have breached the trust of your employer, and stolen.  It is a prolonged breach of trust, and clearly, efforts were made by you to conceal it successfully.

16What might be said about the company's methods of accepting payment might be another matter, but the fact of the matter is you took advantage of that situation.  There is no victim impact statement from the company.

17The offending has to be regarded as serious.  In the normal course of events, it would call for the application of general and specific deterrence, through  denunciation and appropriate punishment.

18Your counsel's original position was that a community corrections order would be sufficient.  In my view, that is not the case, and the Crown submission was that a combined sentence would be appropriate.  As indicated, that might be a relatively generous concession, but in these circumstances, it is one with which I will accord.

19I then look to matters personal to you and tendered on your behalf were some defence submissions that were concise and helpful.

20You are now 44.  You were born in Preston.  You have one sister, your parents separated when you were about 18 months old.  You do not have much of a relationship with either of them, I am told.

21You married your husband in 2000, and you have two children, aged 17 and 13 years of age.

22Upon leaving school after Year 12, you worked in administration and completed a certificate in accounting.  Other than that, you have always had a good work record.  You have no prior convictions, and raised two children.

23You were involved with a family business which collapsed in 2009.  As a result of that, your husband filed for voluntary bankruptcy.  Shortly after that, you commenced your employment to the victim in this matter.

24At that time, your husband was unemployed as he was suffering from knee problems, and he has medical evidence to support that.  There was undertaken various surgeries to resolve that issue.

25At around that time, you were the sole income earner for the family.  You instructed your counsel that you were struggling to get across for rent, various outgoings, et cetera.  You claimed that you were only going to borrow it, and repay it, but the fact of the matter is, there is no evidence before me suggesting anything was ever repaid.

26You are not a compulsive gambler, and you do not have any of the addictions that sometimes give rise to this sort of offending.

27Tendered on your behalf were reports and references, and I have read those, and obviously taken them into account. Psychologist Mr Handley, said that you were a moderate risk of reoffending, he went through your personal history in much more detail than I have. 

28He said that in his opinion, a period of imprisonment would make you socially and emotionally vulnerable, and he thought that your skills in a prison system, would make it more onerous for you, than a prisoner who was not in such a disorder, which is an adjustment disorder, with mixed anxiety and depressed mood.

29There is also a psychologist Ms Barr, who you had been attending, and she says and it was accepted by Mr Handley, "There's no doubt in my opinion that Mrs Webster is still suffering from adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood".

30She went on to say much the same things as Mr Handley did, that gaol would be harder for you, and I have indicated during the course of the plea, I do not see how the moral culpability aspects of Verdins apples, however, they do in the overall circumstances, relate to a person who felt unable to deal with life and resorted to this behaviour, to cope.

31I accept on the material before me that it will be harder for you in prison, because of your psychological circumstances, than it would be for other prisoners. 

32I also take into account on your behalf that you will undergo the sentence in the knowledge that your children - you will not be there for your children.  As I understand it, you have been working in recent times, I am sure that will cause you great stress and anxiety.  That is mitigation, not insofar as the children are concerned, but insofar as you are concerned.

33The medical material indicates that you suffer from anxiety and depression; obviously, it is not that uncommon, certainly in a women's prison.  I take that into account.

34Your prospects of your rehabilitation are really up to you.  The risk of your reoffending is described as moderate, and I cannot take it much further than that.

35In all those circumstances, on the charges of theft sentence be aggregate, to a period of imprisonment of six months.  I direct if you then be - if you accept a community corrections order, that you have been assessed for, found to be acceptable, that community corrections order will be with conviction, and will go for 18 months.  It will include the conditions of drug treatment and rehab, mental health treatment and rehab, and supervision.

36I will get you Ms Grey, if you would not mind going with my associate please, so if your client could sign that.

37Pursuant to s.6AAA, although meaningless in this certain circumstance, because you cannot plead not guilty to a rolled-up count, I will say that but for your plea of guilty, you would have been sentenced to be imprisoned for a period of two years, with a minimum term of one.  Thank you.

38MR SHARP:  Pardon me, Your Honour.  Apologies.  There is five days
pre-sentence detention, Your Honour.

39HIS HONOUR:  Yes, I am sorry.  Yes, I did not announce it.   Yes, five days be served, yes.  Thank you.

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