Director of Public Prosecutions v Wright
[2013] VCC 1320
•29 August 2013
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
Case No. CR-13-00185
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| CHRISTOPHER WRIGHT |
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JUDGE: | His Honour Judge Maidment | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 29 August 2013 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 29 August 2013 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | DPP v. Wright | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2013] VCC 1320 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the DPP | Ms K Brekweg | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Mr L. Barker Ms J. Swiney |
HIS HONOUR:
1 Christopher Grant Wright, you can take a seat for the moment. You have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with attempting to possess a drug of dependence, namely pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and methylamphetamine, the offence having taken place between 17 September of last year and 19 September of last year. You have no prior convictions. The maximum term of imprisonment for that offence is five years' imprisonment.
2 The prosecution tendered and relied upon a folder of materials which included a document entitled, "Prosecution plea opening" which I was informed by your counsel was an agreed statement of facts upon which I could pass sentence upon you. That document was read earlier today. I do not propose to read it again but I incorporate its contents in its entirety into these reasons for sentence.
3 Suffice for me to say at this stage that as I said during the course of the plea I am satisfied that you attached yourself to a very substantial criminal enterprise, albeit that your role in that enterprise was limited. That role was an important role. It may have arisen out of a crisis in the organisation behind the criminal enterprise but it was a pivotal and significant role that you played.
4 Your precise state of knowledge is not clear. However I am not satisfied that the submission made on your behalf is a true reflection of your state of mind. It seems to me that the degree of naivety that would be required for you to have had that state of mind is inconsistent with the overall facts. That is not to say that I am suggesting that you knew the full details of the criminal organisation or indeed had any really detailed knowledge of anyone else involved in it, apart from the gentleman that recruited you, Mr Rogation.
5 The offence is a serious one. There are many other more serious offences in the criminal calendar, involving drugs, and the fact that this one only carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years should not be allowed to diminish the seriousness of the offending conduct.
6 So far as submissions made on your behalf are concerned I was assisted greatly by a detailed outline of plea document with a number of accompanying documents which were provided to me and form Exhibit 1. I incorporate that outline into these Reasons for Sentence. I am not going to go through those in detail, again, but they helpfully tell me a bit about your past history and they inform me about your family, that I am assured supports you. I am told about your 12 year old daughter and your current partner, all of whom no doubt you miss greatly and I accept that the fact that the fact that you have been incarcerated for 342 days, excluding today, already will have been very burdensome in light of the fact that you have been separated from all of those persons for that length of time.
7 You have also been in protection. That, too, will have added to the burden and I accept also that your health problems have contributed to the burden that you have faced in custody.
8 I think that given all of those facts it is very much to your credit that you have approached your time in custody in a positive manner and that you have achieved the degree of trust within the Melbourne Remand Centre that you have and that you have been involved as a peer supporter during that time, I think is a great credit to you and shows a strength of character which I have no doubt will stand you in good stead, longer term.
9 The fact that you have no prior convictions adds to the strength of the submission that you are a good candidate for rehabilitation, if you are not fully rehabilitated already. I think it is unlikely you will offend again and I think that you will be able to settle back into life in Canada once you eventually get there and lead an honest and decent life.
10 So, I accept, on that basis, that deterring you and protecting the public, whether it be in Australia or Canada, is not a significant sentencing consideration in this case. I am told that it is likely that you will be deported almost immediately upon completing your time in custody. That, I do not think, has added to the burden upon you. Indeed I expect you will be very glad to get back to Canada at the earliest reasonable opportunity.
11 You have pleaded guilty, albeit at the last minute, or after the trial was due to start. The fact that you pleaded guilty at that late stage still gives rise to the need that I should give you a discount for the utilitarian value of that plea, the fact that you have saved the state the cost a trial and the witnesses the witnesses the inconvenience of having to attend a trial, is not insignificant and you deserve credit for that.
12 It is probably consistent with the proposition that you are remorseful. I accept what the prosecution say about the lack of clear evidence of remorse but you have expressed that remorse to a prison chaplin, in particular, and it seems that your remorse is reflected in the letters from family members that were tendered on your behalf. Despite the lack of clear evidence I am inclined to accept that you are genuinely remorseful for your participation in this criminal enterprise.
13 It is necessary for the court to express its denunciation of offending conduct of this kind and to punish you adequately for your offending conduct. It is particularly important that the court imposes sentences that tend to deter other people from committing offences of this kind and I have to give proper value to the need to do so in a case such as this. As I said earlier, this was a substantial criminal enterprise. Even if you may not have known the full extent of it, you must have realised that it was, nevertheless, a substantial criminal enterprise. Otherwise the efforts that were made to retrieve the contents of the storage unit at Hoppers Crossing would not have been made and you would not have been required to come to Australia to effect it.
14 You have been in custody now for 342 days, not including today and I think that that is a very substantial period of time given the overall circumstances and given the hardships that you faced whilst doing your time and I am inclined to accept the submission by your counsel that a partially suspended sentence is the proper approach to dealing with this matter.
15 I am bound to disregard, for the purposes of assessing an appropriate sentence, the fact that you will be deported or are likely to be deported. So I have to pass an appropriate sentence, having regard to all of the circumstances of the case, without that fact being an influence or any significant influence upon the sentence that I select.
16 Your counsel submitted that I should release you immediately or at least enable you to be deported immediately. The order that I propose to make will not quite go that far but it will go pretty close. Would you stand now please?
17 For the offence of attempting to possess drugs of dependence, I convict you and sentence you to imprisonment for two years and six months. I order that 18 months of that sentence be suspended for a period of two years. That means that you be required to serve a total of 12 months. So you have got a little bit of time to go but not very much.
18 But for your plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to imprisonment for three years with a non-parole period of two years, do you understand?
19 PRISONER: Yes sir.
20 HIS HONOUR: I declare that 342 days, not including today, is to be reckoned as time served on the sentencing orders that I have made and that that time be deducted administratively from the time that you will actually have to serve and I order that that fact be noted in the records of the court.
21 PRISONER: Thank you sir. Thank you Your Honour.
22 MR BARKER: If I hear what Your Honour's associate is saying correctly, Your Honour, there was - - -
23 HIS HONOUR: There were originally three charges? Yes.
24 MR BARKER: There were originally three charges of attempting to possess in one charge - - -
25 HIS HONOUR: It's attempting to possess the three drugs.
26 MR BARKER: That's correct Your Honour.
27 HIS HONOUR: So it's been rolled up effectively?
28 MR BARKER: Yes indeed. Your Honour my client instructed me before you walked off the bench to say thank you very much.
29 HIS HONOUR: Well look I haven't done that to please him, I have done that because I think it is the correct sentence.
30 MR BARKER: Of course, indeed. No, no Your Honour it was regardless of any sentence that you passed.
31 HIS HONOUR: Yes.
32 MR BARKER: He wanted to thank you.
33 HIS HONOUR: Yes, all right. Well Mr Wright I am sure you have learned a major lesson.
34 PRISONER: Yes sir.
35 HIS HONOUR: You are a hockey player, aren't you?
36 PRISONER: Yes Your Honour.
37 HIS HONOUR: Is that field hockey or ice hockey?
38 PRISONER: Ice hockey.
39 HIS HONOUR: Ice hockey. Not a game I know anything much about but I think you should go and get back to that and to your daughter and your partner, as soon as you reasonably can.
40 PRISONER: Thank you Your Honour.
41 HIS HONOUR: Don't come back to Australia unless you've come for a genuine holiday.
42 PRISONER: Yes Your Honour.
43 HIS HONOUR: And I'm sure there are better places in Australia than Hoppers Crossing.
44 PRISONER: Yes Your Honour.
45 HIS HONOUR: No disrespect to those who live in Hoppers Crossing. All right, you can take a seat now.
46 I think I am required to say to you, although it may not have great relevance, that during the operative period of the sentence, which is two years, if you commit in Australia another offence punishable by imprisonment, you will almost certainly be required to serve the balance of the sentence that I have imposed today, all right?
47 PRISONER: Yes Your Honour.
48 HIS HONOUR: If you do not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment during that two year period you will not be required to serve the balance of the sentence, which is 18 months as I have already indicated.
49 PRISONER: Yes Your Honour.
50 HIS HONOUR: All right, you can sit down again now.
51 MR BARKER: Your Honour whilst the relevant documents' being produced, may I approach my client?
52 HIS HONOUR: Yes.
53 MR BARKER: Explain to him what is coming his way?
54 HIS HONOUR: Sure. Mr (Indistinct) there was no indictment number on the indictment.
55 COUNSEL: There's a CR – I know there's a CR number.
56 HIS HONOUR: There's a CR number, yes.
57 COUNSEL: But otherwise it's Commonwealth and – well, Commonwealth indictment Your Honour so that's why there's no other number.
58 HIS HONOUR: Yes, well the order's been provided.
59 MR BARKER: Thank you very much Your Honour.
60 MS SWINEY: As Your Honour pleases.
61 COUNSEL: Thank you Your Honour.
62 PRISONER: Thank you Your Honour.
63 MR BARKER: May we now be excused?
64 HIS HONOUR: Yes, you can go, and you can bring Mr Woodhouse back.
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