Director of Public Prosecutions v Woolley
[2021] VCC 479
•28 April 2021
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA AT MELBOURNE CRIMINAL DIVISION | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
Case No. CR-20-01462
Indictment No. L11964109
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| JACK WOOLLEY |
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JUDGE: | Her Honour Judge Dalziel | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 28 April 2021 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 28 April 2021 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v Woolley | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2021] VCC 479 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:CRIMINAL LAW
Catchwords: Sentence – Theft – Plea of guilty
Sentence: 2 years and 3 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 1 year and 2 months.
6AAA:3 years and 9 months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of 2 years and 6 months.
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Mr J. McCarthy | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr J. Gullaci | Galbally & O’Bryan |
HER HONOUR:
1Jack Woolley, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of theft. This is a rolled up charge covering 79 occasions between 5 July 2016 and 14 March 2017, when the individual thefts occurred.
2You had been working for the business, the Waterloo Cup Hotel in Moonee Ponds, as an assistant manager from February 2014, and then as the venue manager from 13 June 2015. Your duties as manager included the day-to-day running and management of the hotel, day-to-day management of other employees including compiling the roster, and of particular importance to the charge before the court, your duties included removing cash from electronic gaming machines, replenishing a cash dispensing unit, and entering the relevant transactions into software.
3Each evening it was the manager's responsibility to remove all the cash from the hotel’s electronic gaming machines. In the morning the manager was required to count and balance all the funds from the electronic gaming machines using software to which you had access. The money from the electronic gaming machines was used to “re-float” the cash dispensing unit to ensure that the unit had cash for those wanting to use it. Excess funds generated from the gaming machines after the re-float process were then recorded by the manager, put in a safe, and then collected by an armoured cash transport service.
4The charge before the court is put on the basis that carried out the thefts by taking money from the cash taken from the gaming machines which was used to re-stock the cash dispensing unit. You covered those thefts by falsely entering data into the software accounting system. This made it appear as if the money which you had stolen had been physically loaded into the cash dispensing unit as part of the “ re-float” process, when in fact the money had not been put into cash dispensing unit. As I have previously noted you carried out this process 79 times. The largest individual amount stolen by you was $14,000 and the smallest individual amount stolen was $900. The total amount stolen was $381,880.00.
5Your thefts were discovered on 16 March 2017 after an audit of the balance sheets of the hotel. This identified a discrepancy between the amount dispensed from the cash dispensing unit and the amount reimbursed to the hotel from the owners of that unit. Further investigation revealed that the discrepancies all occurred whilst you were on duty as manager.
6The next day, 17 March 2017, you met with the internal auditor used by your employer. You initially denied stealing the money, but you ultimately admitted that you had been stealing from the hotel since around July or August the previous year, and that you have been doing so multiple times a week. You immediately repaid $3500, in cash, and you agreed that your final pay and entitlements totalling $3,865.22 would be used by your employer to meet part of the stolen funds. You also agreed to repay $360,000 within 28 days.
7You did not repay that money, and the matter was reported to the police. You were interviewed by police on 31 May 2017 and in effect exercised your right to silence. There was then a period of more than three years delay before further action was taken by the police in this matter. You were arrested on 18 August 2020. You were interviewed by police and made admissions to the offending.
8You told the police that you stole the money to pay for drugs and that you were also gambling. You described it as a pretty dark low point in your life and that you had a bad ice addiction. Although some of the money was spent on gambling, most of it was spent on drugs. You were spending in the range of $1,000 per day on methylamphetamine.
9After you had left your employment you sold your house following the breakup of your relationship with your fiancée, but rather than using your portion of the sale price to repay the hotel, you spent the money - between $60,000 or $70,000 - on drugs .
10This was serious offending. The breach of trust was significant, as was the period over which it occurred. Employers must trust their staff to carry out their duties honestly and properly, particularly as when is often the case the staff have access to the takings of the business. Whilst your offending was not particularly sophisticated, and it was inevitably going to be detected, your counsel, on your behalf, has acknowledged that your offending was a significant breach of the trust owed by you to your employer. As have said, it occurred over eight months, involving 79 separate thefts.
11You are now 31 years old. At the time of the offending you were 26 and 27 years old.
12You were born in Dandenong and have a sister. Your parents remained together until you were 19 years old after which time they separated. The report from your treating psychologist indicates that this was upsetting for you and continued to trouble you during the period of your offending. You describe your childhood as stable and that you had a good upbringing. You finished VCE in 2007, and then you moved when you were 19 to live in Melbourne. You studied event management and financial planning but you did not complete either of those courses.
13You have a good work history – you had a paper round when young, you worked in ski resorts as a ski instructor when you were a teenager. You then were working in the hospitality industry from the age of 18 through to the time that you ceased working for the victim hotel in this case.
14You were working in pokies venues and you developed a gambling problem, particularly related to the poker machines and with also with attendances at the casino, and this did not help you.
15You told your psychologist that at the time of the offending you had a gambling addiction, drug addiction, and were experiencing distress and conflict over your parent's breakup. You said you were addicted to amphetamines and cocaine.
16After the offending was detected and you ceased working for the Waterloo Cup Hotel, you sought assistance shortly afterwards from a psychologist on a referral from your general practitioner. Whilst you kept using drugs for some time, in 2018 you were able to start giving up using methyl amphetamine and cocaine by going cold turkey, and with the assistance of your counsellor. I have been told that you had some 30 to 40 one hour sessions with that psychologist. When interviewed in 2020 by police you told them the last time you had used ice was in December 2019.
17You found employment working in hospital maintenance, and have been working for the same employer for around three and a half hears. I have seen a reference from your employer who speaks highly of your work ethic. He has written that you informed him of your pending legal proceedings when he first employed you. He describes you as his number one employee, and has indicated that he will employ you again when you are able to resume working.
18I have also been provided with two references from people who have got to know you through your involvement in playing cricket. Both referees speak very highly of you, and I note that they each say that you have been elected as a captain of the club on two occasions. They speak of your dedication to the team and your care and compassion for the other players.
19I have also received a reference from your partner, whom you met in 2018 and with whom you commenced a relationship in early 2019. She writes that you have always been open with her about the offending, your past drug use, and that you were undergoing counselling. Despite these pending proceedings and the shadow that they cast over your relationship and life, your partner remains committed to you and you have recently had a daughter together. I am sure it will be distressing to you to not be able to be with your partner and daughter during this early period in your daughter's life and while you partner needs your support.
20A letter from your father describes his observations of you changing during your 20s, which he did not appreciate at the time related to the drug problem that you had. Your relationship with him became strained, but more recently he says, you reached out to him and you have reconnected with him. It is very encouraging to see your parents and uncle and aunt in court supporting you.
21Each of your referees have spoken of the remorse that you have shown and your regret for the harm inflicted by you upon your colleagues, your family, and on yourself.
22You pleaded guilty to these charges at the earliest reasonable opportunity. You were charged on 18 August 2020 and you entered a plea of guilty on 6 November 2020. Your plea of guilty is of considerable utilitarian value to the courts and to the administration of justice, particularly in circumstances where the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly affected the operations of the court.
23I also accept that your plea is a reflection of your remorse for your conduct. I have noted the referees speak of your regret and remorse, and it is relevant that you almost immediately confessed when confronted by your employers back in 2017.
24During the lengthy period between the detection of these thefts, and charges being laid, you have made significant steps in turning your life around, and in rehabilitating yourself. In my view the period of delay carries significant mitigation on your plea, due to the concern that you must have felt with these charges hanging over your head for that period of time, and by reason of the rehabilitation which you have commenced and made good progress on during this period of time.
25I accept your counsel's submission that you have good prospects for rehabilitation. You have no relevant prior criminal history, and there has been no further offending in the four years since this offending was detected. I accept that you are remorseful, and that you have been upfront with your current employer and those who know you is a positive sign. You have engaged in your community playing cricket, you have re-engaged with your father, you are working, and you have a stable relationship and a daughter.
26Your barrister rightly did not seek to argue that your gambling and drug addictions were mitigating. They provide an explanation for the offending, and can be contrasted to a situation where a person steals motivated by greed or a desire for high living. This is, however, the absence of an aggravating circumstance rather than a factor in mitigation.
27Your counsel has properly acknowledged that the offending is of such a gravity that a prison sentence is inevitable. Even giving full weight in mitigation to your plea of guilty, the delay, and your positive prospects for rehabilitation, the principles of general deterrence, denunciation, and just punishment must also be given weight in the sentencing exercise. That having been said, the factors raised in mitigation are each powerful, and I have given them very significant weight in mitigation.
28I also take into account that you will be going into prison for the first time in your life and that there is the risk that the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions will impact not only your going in, but the contact that you can have with others once you are inside.
29Could you please stand? On the charge of theft you are sentenced to two years and three months' imprisonment. I set a non-parole period of 14 months.
30There is no pre-sentence detention to declare.
31I declare pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act that had you not pleaded guilty I would have sentenced you to three years and nine months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of two and a half years. Thank you, you may sit down. Is there anything that I have not covered?
32MR McCARTHY: No, Your Honour.
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