DPP v Scott

[2017] VCC 1907

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

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-17-01423

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS

v

LUKE SCOTT

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE CHETTLE
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
DATE OF SENTENCE:	12 December 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Scott
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VCC 1907

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:
Catchwords:
Legislation Cited:
Cases Cited:
Sentence:

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms K. Hamill
For the Accused	Mr F. Cameron

Pages 1 - 4

 

 

HIS HONOUR:

1Luke Scott, you have pleaded guilty to one count of theft and one count of furnishing false information.  Your theft was extensive.  Although it is only one count, it covers a period of two and a half years and a total amount of $113,000 odd dollars that you stole. 

2The facts of your offending are set out in Exhibit A, the agreed statement of facts tendered upon your plea.  I incorporate that document into these reasons for sentence I sentence you on the basis of the facts set out therein. 

3Very briefly stated, as I say, you repeatedly stole from your employer and sold parts and equipment that you were supposed to manage, directing the benefit of those sales to yourself.  In order to conceal your theft, you manufactured false documents, the subject of the second charge, the full details of which are set out in the schedules to the indictment and the summary of factual basis. 

4Your victims made victim impact statements, both Harvey and Janette Smith are clearly aggrieved and damaged by your offending.  They trusted you.  Harvey Smith says that your dishonest and deceitful ways have impacted on his ability to trade financially and he is concerned about the effect on his wife, who he described as distraught and he sees his brand as being trashed by your conduct.  He is obviously greatly hurt by the betrayal of the trust he placed in you. 

5Janette Margaret Smith echoes similar sentiments in relation to breach of trust and she now feels that she does not trust people and she feels threatened by people.  She is suspicious, disillusioned and angry.  Apparently, these thefts occurred at a time where she and her daughter were unwell and you were, therefore, in a greater position of trust than you perhaps would otherwise have been.  She also says that she has been damaged by the way in which your crimes have impacted upon her husband her watching that.  I take the victim impact material into account in sentencing you. 

6Your personal history is set out in Exhibit 2.  The psychological report tendered upon your plea from Healthwise, it is an remarkable history.  You are a man without prior conviction.  You are now 40 years of age and you have a wife and five children, all of whom would suffer greatly if you went to prison.  Were it not for a number of factors, that is exactly where you would be going.  Those factors, I have already outlined to your counsel, you have pleaded guilty. 

7Perhaps more significantly, you have paid back every penny of what you have been charged with and more.  That repayment should go some way to taking away the effect of your crime upon your victims.  It also demonstrates, in my view, your remorse for your conduct tangibly. 

8I take into account that you have no prior convictions of any sort, nor any subsequent conviction and you are prepared if asked to assist the police in what I think is marginal matter with your ex-boss at work. 

9Your personal history is set out in the report of Healthwise and I am not going to repeat in these reasons for sentence.  Although you finished your VCE, you started an engineering degree and you ended up in sales and you have been in sales for some years.  You are now fully employed with Safe Live Solutions, who have provided a reference, I think a reference for another cause other than the court case and matter of them - I mean, it is a matter for you but they clearly do not know at this stage about the fact that you are here and what you did in the past. 

10Your wife provided a reference which really tells out her concerns as to her future and the future of the family if you were to be incarcerated, how she and the children would survive.  She otherwise describes you a man of good character and the waiting for this matter to be resolved over the last four years, she describes as "hell" for her family. 

11At the end of the day, I have obviously indicated that I am not going to impose a term of imprisonment.  The law is that I cannot impose a term of imprisonment if the purposes of sentencing can be met by a community corrections order. 

12In my view, a community corrections order together with a fine do meet the needs of the Sentencing Act under s.5, general deterrence, I have got to deter others from doing what you did.  I have got to deter you from doing it again and I have got to express the community's denunciation for your conduct as I have got to take into account the effect on the victims, which I have already referred to. 

13On both charges, you are convicted, and on both charges you are fined an aggregate sum of $25,000, and on both charges you are to be released on a community corrections order for a term of two years with the condition that perform 300 hours of unpaid community work.  You will have to report to the Frankston Community Corrections Centre within 48 hours of today - that address is at ground floor, 431 Nepean Highway, Frankston - within two working days from today, so you will have to go - they will be getting this so you will have to be there by Thursday night.  Are you prepared to undergo such an order?

14OFFENDER:  Yes.

15HIS HONOUR:  As to the $25,000 fine, I will allow you to pay that by instalments of $500 a month.  The first instalment being 12 January - what day of the week is that?  What day of the week is 12 January?  I do not want to make it a Sunday. 

16MR CAMERON:  I think it is actually a Friday.

17HIS HONOUR:  All right, Friday.  On or before 12 January and monthly thereafter.  If you breach the community corrections order either by reoffending in the next two years or by non-compliance, not doing your hours, you will be brought back and I have got to re-sentenced you. 

18As I explained during your plea, that is the only way you could end up in prison after what happened today.  I am not saying that would necessarily happen if you failed to comply, I would want to know why and I would probably put you back on it but you would be back to see me.  All right, I will have this order - you can come forward and sit behind Mr Cameron.  On both charges, on both, twenty-five grand.  Yes.  No, one lot of 25, an aggregate figure. 
Mr Cameron ‑ ‑ ‑

19MR CAMERON:  Yes, Your Honour?

20HIS HONOUR:  ‑ ‑ ‑ your client can be - he is lucky because when I first read it I thought, "No way", but when I got to the bit where he paid the money back, I thought, "Possibly", and when I read ‑ ‑ ‑

21MR CAMERON:  There was the saving grace was the repayment quickly and the overpayment to some extent.

22HIS HONOUR:  Well, and he has got five kids which you have got to think of. 

23MR CAMERON:  Yes.

24HIS HONOUR:  All right.  Any other orders?

25COUNSEL:  No, Your Honour.

26HIS HONOUR:  No 464, nothing - all right.  I will adjourn until tomorrow at
10 o'clock.

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