Director of Public Prosecutions v Wilson
[2024] VCC 1012
•28 June 2024
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
CR-24-00108
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| ZAC WILSON |
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JUDGE: | HIS HONOUR JUDGE JOHNS | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 17 June 2024 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 28 June 2024 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Wilson | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2024] VCC 1012 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence
Catchwords: Armed robbery – Plea of guilty – Offending in company – Category 2 offence – Application of Bugmy principles – Totality – Parity - Remorse
Legislation Cited: Sentencing Act 1991
Cases Cited:Bugmy v The Queen [2013] 249 CLR 571; R v Verdins [2007] 16 VR 269
Sentence:Two years’ and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 14 months.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Director of Public Prosecutions | Mr C. Rattray | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr T. Glass | Slink & Keating Barristers & Solicitors |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Zac Wilson, you pleaded guilty before me to a charge of armed robbery. Armed robbery carries a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment.
2 Your armed robbery was committed in company and by virtue of that it is a Category 2 offence, and I must sentence you to a sentence of imprisonment other than in combination with a community corrections order unless one of the exceptions in s 5(2)H of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic) (‘Sentencing Act’) are met.
3 Your Counsel has conceded appropriately that no exception applies in your case.
4 You have a lengthy criminal history for a young man. The circumstances of your offending before me are set out in the amended Summary of Prosecution Opening which is dated 2 May, which is Exhibit A and forms part of these reasons for sentence.
Circumstances of Offending
5 In brief terms, on 16 August last year your 43-year-old victim was at a venue known as the Leo Club. Your co-accused, Mr Lette, who I sentenced last month was also there and noticed that your victim apparently won a considerable sum of money in the gaming lounge.
6 Your co-accused called you to come on down and there was clearly – there is no direct evidence of this - but there was clearly a plan to take your victim's money. You drove down to the club and parked your car strategically in a laneway.
7 You entered the club and Mr Lette introduced you to the victim. You and Mr Lette lured the victim to an alleyway adjacent to the club where you had parked your vehicle under the pre-text of having a smoke.
8 You got into the driver's seat of the vehicle. Your victim sat in the front passenger seat. Mr Lette sat behind. There was another person involved also. Mr Lette began restraining your victim and assaulting him, together with the other person, making demands of his wallet and demands for money. When these demands were not succeeding you produced a Stanley knife and demanded that he hand over his wallet.
9 You went on to slash his jeans from the crotch area to the middle thigh area of his left leg. You held the blade towards him whilst waving the knife, yelling at him to give you his wallet. Mr Lette continued to hit the victim. He searched his pockets, located the wallet which contained $5000 in cash, Suncorp credit card, Citibank card and various other cards in his name, along with his iPhone which was taken from his pocket. He was then pushed out of the vehicle and you drove out of the alleyway onto Drummond Street.
10 You were arrested on 23 August, where you made full admissions and you are entitled to credit for that and for the assistance your cooperation provided the police.
Objective Gravity of Offending
11 This is very serious offending. It is predatory and involves a degree of planning. The effects on the victim are no doubt long lasting and it was a terrifying experience to be involved in. Any person the subject of that attack would be impacted considerably by the offending. The offence was committed in company. You wielded a frightening weapon.
Personal Circumstances
12 Your Counsel, Mr Glass, in his excellent outline summarised your personal circumstances. That was Exhibit 1. I am not going to recite Exhibit 1 and there also a very thorough psychological report from Dr Dawson tendered. That was Exhibit 2.
13
I will not go over that in detail, but I accept those matters as to your personal history. You are a young Aboriginal man with a Narrandjeri connection I was told. Both parents were illicit substance users and as a result your childhood had some adversity, instability, exposure to violence and negative influences.
Dr Dawson stated that your childhood was impacted by instability as well as family violence and substance use, leading to neglect, deprivation and difficulties with safety. I accept that summary.
14 Dr Dawson also went on to state that your difficulties have accumulated throughout life, leading to experiences of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. I also accept that finding of Dr Dawson.
15 Amongst your experiences, you experienced your father going to prison, and police attending your family home. I was told you remain in contact with your mother more frequently than with your father. You had a close relationship with your brother in childhood but due to his polysubstance abuse that relationship has become strained within recent years.
16 You have a daughter with your ex-partner. That relationship started in your teenage years and continued into early adulthood. Infidelity and drug use, it appears, led to the breakdown of that relationship. Currently you do not have any contact with your daughter or your former partner. You have not seen your daughter for two years and that is causing you considerable angst. It is a motivating factor for you to rehabilitate.
17 You have been a cannabis smoker since your early teenage years. You also used methylamphetamine up to the age of 20, I was told.
Factors in Mitigation
Bugmy and Verdins principles
18 I accept what has been said about your childhood and your teenage years. The lack of stability and support and nurturing, which in turn leads to a gravitation towards drug use and negative influences. To some degree, the principles of Bugmy have application in your case and I assess your moral culpability in light of it.[1]
[1]Bugmy v The Queen (‘Bugmy’) [2013] 249 CLR 571.
19
There are also submissions made in relation to Verdins.[2] I do not find that
there is the necessary nexus between PTSD and/or substance use disorder, given its origins in your youthful years and the offending to the sufficient degree required in order to reflect it in any meaningful way consistent with the
Verdinsprinciples 1, 3 and 4.
[2]R v Verdins (‘Verdin’”) [2007] 16 VR 269.
20 It is nonetheless a relevant factor and perhaps sits more within the Bugmy type consideration, that PTSD and the drug use that started in your early teenage years and are explanatory to a large extent of the lifestyle you had been leading. I have mentioned your lengthy criminal history. It is a history that I accept is reflective of drug use and acquisitive type offences in order to fund drug use, of which this was an example, the offence before me.
21 I also accept what Mr Glass submitted on your behalf, that the violence associated with this particular offence is not reflective of your criminal history. It is an escalation in that sense, but it also places you in a better light than if you had a long history of violence.
Parity
22 Parity is of course an important sentencing consideration and Mr Lette was sentenced by me on the same charge to two and a half years detention in a Youth Justice Centre. He had 237 days declared by way of pre-sentence detention. He was younger than you. To a relevant extent he had a more limited history. He was on Youth Parole at the time of the offending. His role was central as an orchestrator of the offending, however. Your role was such that it elevated a robbery into armed robbery in company by your use of the weapon.
Totality
23 You do not have any pre-sentence detention available, and you have been in custody since August last year, effectively serving a sentence which will expire in August this year. That is right, is it or November – August this year?
24 MR GLASS: I believe it's another five months.
25 HIS HONOUR: Another five months.
26 MR GLASS: So, essentially November, yes.
27 HIS HONOUR: November, all right. That being the case, the principle of totality has to be considered carefully in your case, and has to be applied carefully in your case. That is a feature which was not present in Mr Lette's matter.
Plea of guilty and remorse
28 Your plea of guilty is significant and I have already noted your full admissions. I was told that by virtue of your full admissions - you are in protective custody. A letter authored by you was tendered on your behalf – I take it into account.
29 You are entitled to a significant discount for the utilitarian value of your plea. I also consider your plea is reflective of contrition and acceptance of wrongdoing.
30
Mr Rattray, in his very helpful sentencing submissions refers to some queries in relation to full acceptance and remorse based on the psychological material. But I have reviewed the letter you authored and looking at your response to the charges whilst in custody I am satisfied that you do have appropriate insight and remorse and victim empathy in relation to the matter. And that again is a matter which I find in your case is slightly more present than it was in that of
Mr Lette's.
31 I have read your letter to the Court, and I have taken it into consideration, as well as remorse, insight and empathy, it demonstrates a willingness to change that I accept is genuine and that is very important.
Prospects of Rehabilitation
32 And that comes to the prospect of rehabilitation. You have completed a 30-hour AOD course and I had a certificate and a letter setting out what was involved in that program and your commitment to it and completion of it. There has also been filed on your behalf quite a number of certificates, though I will not list them all. They are certificates of achievement in respect of courses you have been doing that show you are trying to rehabilitate.
33 It is one thing to say it and say what you want to do but your actions have shown that you are availing yourself of every opportunity to try and get out on parole, reunite with your daughter and to lead a more productive life than what you have been doing. You have also been working whilst in custody in meat works and meat preparation.
34 So, I accept that at present you have reasonable prospects of rehabilitation if you can remain abstinent.
Other Sentencing Considerations
35 I mention totality is a significant factor, given the length of time you have been in custody which is not able to be reflected by way of pre-sentence detention. It has been your longest period in custody.
36 General deterrence nonetheless remains a very significant factor. I have mentioned Mr Rattray's sentencing submissions that fairly considers all the considerations, both in your favour and also those objective factors which I must consider, and makes points with which issue cannot be taken.
37 General deterrence remains a very significant factor, notwithstanding your youth. Your youth is a factor in your favour, and it is a factor which I take into account in support of my finding in relation to your prospects of rehabilitation.
38 I impose a sentence which reflects the importance of general deterrence and denunciation and some specific deterrence for offending of this nature by you in your circumstances.
39 It is a sentence that also acknowledges what I find to be a genuine willingness to embrace rehabilitative supports and it reflects it in the disparity between the head sentence and the non-parole period.
Sentence
40 I sentence you as follows, Mr Wilson. In relation to the charge of armed robbery you are sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment. I set a non-parole period of 14 months. Were it not for your pleas of guilty I would have sentence you to a total effective sentence of four years imprisonment with a non-parole period of two and a half years.
41 There is one day of PSD. Is that right?
42 MR RATTRAY: That's correct.
43
HIS HONOUR: I declare you have served one day of this sentence pursuant to s 18 of the Sentencing Act. Were there any other orders that were required,
Mr Rattray?
44 MR RATTRAY: No, Your Honour.
45 HIS HONOUR: There is no disposal or anything like that?
46 MR RATTRAY: No.
47 HIS HONOUR: All right. Well, Mr Wilson, that sentence commences today, and you will be eligible for parole in 14 months.
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