Director of Public Prosecutions v West
[2016] VCC 225
•7 March 2016
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-15-02049
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS | Plaintiff |
| V | |
| COREY WEST | Defendant |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE JORDAN | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 4 and 7 March 2016 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 7 March 2016 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v West | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2016] VCC 225 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr J. Manning | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms S. Vardy | Balmer & Associates Pty |
HIS HONOUR:
1 You, Corey West, have pleaded guilty to three charges of armed robbery and one charge of robbery. The maximum penalty for armed robbery is 25 years' imprisonment and 15 years' imprisonment for robbery.
2 The circumstances of your offending are set out in the summary of prosecution opening, Exhibit A, together with the CCTV footage, Exhibit B. The offences all occurred over a period of about two weeks from the 21st of January 2015 until the 4th of February 2015. You and three other young men committed these crimes at night on service stations. You were aged 18 and about three months at the time and the other three offenders were under 18.
3 The roles you played are amply shown in the two exhibits mentioned. As to your role you accosted the lone shop assistants on each of the four occasions and in effect got them out of the way. Although you were not armed, others were. Amounts of cash and some cigarettes were taken.
4 I regard these as serious examples of this type of offending. There are a number of features which support this view. You chose a soft target on each occasion, late at night and there were four of you. A level of planning was involved and your roles were defined and largely consistent from offence to offence.
5 You exposed the victims to a frightening situation and you manhandled shop assistants on several occasions although fortunately no physical injury was apparently sustained. Each of the shop assistants I was told had been invited to make victim impact statements but had declined. Accordingly there is no evidence before the court of any ongoing consequences, physical or psychological, suffered by them.
6 Each of your three co-offenders have been dealt with in the Children's Court. All have been involved in significantly more offending than you. RP was sentenced to a 12 month Youth Supervision Order in relation to 12 armed robbery charges. NS was sentenced to a nine month Youth Supervision Order in relation to nine armed robberies. LB was sentenced to a Youth Attendance Order for 13 armed robberies. As the sentencing regimes are very different for child offenders as opposed to adult offenders, the principle of parity has some relevance but it has only a limited role to play in sentencing considerations.
7 You have no criminal record. There has been no further offending since the 4th of February 2015 and nothing is pending. After being arrested in September 2015 you have complied with your strict bail conditions that have involved 20 lengthy youth justice sessions of about an hour with Mr Stephen Riordan, senior court advice officer, Melbourne Central Courts. He gave oral evidence of your positive attitude to rehabilitation, your remorse and your compliance with the demands he put on you over those 20 visits.
8 You are entitled to be sentenced as a young offender under the Sentencing Act.
9 I turn now to matters personal to you. You are still only 19. You have good family support as evidenced in the materials tendered as well as people who have been prepared to come to court. On your behalf a number of documents were tendered including Written Submissions, a lengthy report from Michael Bilyk, psychologist, a Bail Progress Report from Mr Riordan, and five written references from people who know you and one who has employed you, Exhibits 1-4. Those documents are straight forward and do not require elaboration of the support they give on your plea.
10 My opinion your prospects of rehabilitation are real. The documents tendered all support this view as does your record of interview, your compliance with a requirement to not associate with your co-offenders and to move on from that company, as well as no further offending.
11 Your counsel pointed to a number of matters which you are entitled to have taken into account in mitigation. You pleaded guilty early and apparently saved the police from the requirements of preparing a full brief. You saved witnesses the ordeal of giving evidence and you have also saved the community the time and expense of a trial.
12 Your counsel submitted that a Community Correction Order (CCO) with conditions was the appropriate disposition without a period of detention. The prosecution agreed this was within the range of appropriate dispositions.
13 An Assessment Outcome Report dated the 7th of March 2016 has been received and you have been assessed as suitable for a CCO with five conditions in addition to the conditions that accompany every such order. You have also been assessed by Corrections Victoria as being a low risk of reoffending, Exhibit B.
14 As well as those matters personal to you to which I have referred, I must also take into account other relevant sentencing considerations. General and specific deterrence must be given weight in the sentence I impose. The community cannot and will not tolerate offending which so seriously comprises shop assistants' right to feel safe at night in their places of work or offending which can have physical and emotional consequences due to the frightening events involved. Your sentence must manifest the community's denunciation of your conduct and impose just punishment. I must protect the community from any repetition of this type of offending. I must seek to deter you and others from such offending. These are without doubt serious offences.
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Please stand. You are convicted and if you are prepared to consent I propose making an order for a CCO for a period of two years to be served on Charges 1, 2, 3 and 4 with the following additional conditions: Two hundred hours of unpaid community work, treatment and rehabilitation mental health, treatment and rehabilitation programs to reduce reoffending, supervision, and
non-association with your co-offenders.
16 Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act, I declare that but for your plea of guilty I would have imposed a total effective sentence of 12 months' detention in a Youth Justice Centre and I make the ancillary order sought for a forensic sample to be provided.
17 Now, do you want an opportunity to explain that or just have my associate read those conditions, Ms Vardy?
18 MS VARDY: No, Your Honour. Mr West is aware of all of that.
19 HIS HONOUR: Mr West, you need to listen to these conditions that I am offering you and you need to understand this - you breach those you come back to me. If you come back to me there is only place you can go, my hands are tied. Do you understand where that is? It is prison.
20 OFFENDER: Yes.
21 HIS HONOUR: So listen carefully to these conditions that are read out. It is on your shoulders not mine. If you come back there is nothing I can do for you except sentence you to gaol.
22 ASSOCIATE: Corey West, this order will last two years and commences on the 7th of March 2016 and ends on the 6th of March 2018. You must attend at the Dandenong Community Correctional Services at 46-50 Walker Street, Dandenong, within two clear working days after the commencement of this order. The mandatory terms that apply to all community corrections orders are: that you must not commit another offence for which you could be imprisoned during the time that the order is enforced; you must comply with any obligation or requirement prescribed by Regulation 17 of the Sentencing Regulations 2011; you must report to receive visits from the secretarial delegate; you must report to the Community Corrections Centre within two clear working days of the order starting; you must let a Community Corrections officer know within two clear working days if you are changing your address or job; you must not leave Victoria without first getting permission to do so from the secretarial delegate; you must obey all lawful instructions from and directions of the secretarial delegate.
23 The conditions that apply in addition to the mandatory terms listed are: unpaid community work; you must perform 200 hours of unpaid community work over a period of two years as directed by the regional manager. If you fail to comply with this order the secretary to the Department of Justice or delegate may give you a direction to perform additional hours of unpaid community work in accordance with s.83AU of the Sentencing Act 1991; supervision, you must be under the supervision of a Community Corrections officer for a period of two years; treatment and rehabilitation, you must undergo any mental health assessment and treatment that may include psychological, neuropsychological, psychiatric or treatment in a hospital residential facility as directed by the regional manager; you must participate in programs and/or courses that address factors relating to the offending as directed by the regional manager; non-association, you must not contact or associate with your co-offenders for a period of two years.
24 HIS HONOUR: You can approach the dock if you wish while those terms are undertaken and explained if - - -
25 MS VARDY: Thank you, Your Honour.
26 HIS HONOUR: You consent to that, Mr West?
27 OFFENDER: Sorry?
28 HIS HONOUR: You consent to that?
29 OFFENDER: Yes.
30 HIS HONOUR: You understand the importance of it?
31 OFFENDER: Yep.
32 HIS HONOUR: You understand if you come back to me that is the end of the game?
33 OFFENDER: Yes, sir.
34 HIS HONOUR: Now, I have made an order that you consented to that you supply a sample of your saliva to an authorised police officer and you consent to that through your counsel, do you agree to that?
35 OFFENDER: Yes.
36 HIS HONOUR: Now when you do that, that officer is entitled to use force if you resist that so it would be pretty silly to resist it. If you do not resist it it will be easier than going to the dentist but that is a matter for you. I have made that order so it would be sensible to just go along with what the policeman wants to do.
37 OFFENDER: Yes.
38 HIS HONOUR: All right, is there anything else?
39 MS VARDY: No, Your Honour.
40 MR MANNING: No, Your Honour.
41 HIS HONOUR: It is your lucky day, Mr West.
42 OFFENDER: Thank you, sir.
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