Director of Public Prosecutions v Yates

[2016] VCC 1048

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 12-02367

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

JOSHUA YATES

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JUDGE:	HER HONOUR JUDGE WILMOTH
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	21 July 2016
DATE OF SENTENCE:	21 July 2016
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Yates
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2016] VCC 1048

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject: Contravention of a Community Corrections Order

Sentence: Contravention proved. CCO cancelled and resentenced to further CCO in the same terms and conditions.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms L. Tueno
For the Accused	Ms J. Swiney

HER HONOUR: 

1Mr Yates, would you stand please.

2As you know, I am sentencing you today as an offender who has now spent a month in custody which was a new experience for you and one which I am told by the Corrections officer who interviewed you today that you do not wish to ever have to experience again.

3I also have the report from the psychologist Ms Cidone who has confirmed just what Ms Swiney thought might be a fundamental problem for you, that you can become immobilised with anxiety.

4You heard me say this morning that I was still considering sentencing you to serve some time in prison.  I am not going to do that.  Instead you will be released today assuming that there is nothing else to keep you in custody.

5You breached the Community Corrections Order not by reoffending but by non-compliance, and because there has been a change in your circumstances over the last year and a half or so,  I am justified in giving you another chance.  So the previous CCO is cancelled and I make no order as to the breaching offence itself.

6If you do not comply with the new order, you will be breached again, Mr Yates, and you now know what happens when that occurs.  You will come back here, you will be resentenced and you will almost certainly have to spend time in prison.

7The new Community Corrections Order will begin today and it will last for two years.  It will have exactly the same conditions as before, but with one addition that you be subject to what is called judicial monitoring.  That means you will have to come back to court from time to time so that I can monitor your progress.  It means that I will get a report from Corrections as to how you are going and they will tell me what you have done, what you have not done, and I can then have a talk to you about it and you can tell me what you think about it.  There will not be a prosecutor here and you do not need to come with any lawyer, you just come on your own.

8I will repeat the conditions now so that it will be quite clear to you what they would be.  First of all, you will be under supervision as before.  You must perform 80 hours of unpaid community work as before.  You must have assessment and treatment for alcohol and drug use and also for mental health.  So hopefully progress will be made as soon as possible in this order so that you can address all those things that have become such big problems for you in your life.  It is good that you did not reoffend, that the breach was not of an even more serious kind of committing further offences.  So at least you have got that to go to your credit.

9I will see you at the end of September which gives you time to get settled into accommodation and to employment and to start on all those conditions.  You must report to Corrections at Carlton at 444 Swanston Street by Monday 25 July, 4 o'clock at the outside.  Do you understand all of that?

10OFFENDER:  Yes, I do.

11HER HONOUR:  All right.  That order is ready now for you to sign and Ms Swiney might want to have a look at that before you do.  Yes, and the date - 27 September is the date for judicial monitoring.

12Is there anything further, Ms Swiney?

13MS SWINEY:  No, Your Honour.

14HER HONOUR:  Ms Tueno?

15MS TUENO:  No, Your Honour.

16HER HONOUR:  Thank you.  Good luck, Mr Yates, and I will see you at the end of September.

17OFFENDER:  Thank you.

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