Pasznyk v The Queen

[2014] VSCA 87

SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA

COURT OF APPEAL

S APCR 2013 0175

JASON PAUL PASZNYK	Appellant
	v
THE QUEEN	Respondent

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JUDGES	NETTLE, REDLICH and PRIEST JJA
WHERE HELD	MELBOURNE
DATE OF HEARING	6 May 2014
DATE OF JUDGMENT	8 May 2014
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION	[2014] VSCA 87
JUDGMENT APPEALED FROM	R v Pasznyk (Unreported, County Court of Victoria, Judge Mulally, 13 February 2012)

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CRIMINAL LAW – Appeal – Sentence – Appellant convicted of culpable driving causing death by driving recklessly – Whether culpable driving by driving recklessly is a more serious form of the offence than other forms – Driving with a high blood alcohol reading at high speed – High moral culpability – Multiple prior convictions for drink-driving, speeding and other driving offences – Guilty plea – Sentence of 10 years and 6 months' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 8 years not manifestly excessive – Appeal dismissed.

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Appellant	Mr C T Farrington	Robert Stary Lawyers
For the Crown	Mr G J C Silbert QC	Mr C Hyland, Solicitor for Public Prosecutions

NETTLE JA:

1. This is an appeal by leave against a total effective sentence of 10 years and six months’ imprisonment with a non-parole period of eight years imposed on the appellant on pleading guilty to one charge of culpable driving causing death and one charge of driving a motor vehicle while disqualified.  It is contended that the sentence is manifestly excessive.

1. As the sentencing judge observed, the subject offences were extremely bad examples of this kind of offending.  After drinking ‘Jim Beam’ bourbon and cola for more than four hours on the afternoon of 17 May 2010, and with a consequent blood alcohol concentration of .203 per cent (or, in other words, more than four times the legal limit) the applicant upon his own admission got into his car and drove while disqualified, recklessly at breakneck speeds of between 122 and 130 kph along the Melton-Gisborne Road until eventually he ploughed into the back of the deceased’s car travelling in front of him in the same direction at a speed of no more than 70 kph.  Such was the force of the impact that the deceased’s car exploded upon impact and the deceased was killed.

1. Regrettably, the appellant was anything but a first-time offender.  As the sentencing judge recorded, he has an appalling history of driving offences, including prior convictions for exceeding the blood alcohol limit, refusing to undergo a breath test, driving at more than 30 kph over the speed limit, driving dangerously and carelessly, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, driving while disqualified and driving unlicensed.  He also has convictions for violence, including intentionally causing serious injury, assault and resisting police and drunkenness and damage to property.

1. I need say no more of the effect of the subject offending on the victim than that, through no fault of his own, he has been deprived of what were likely to be the majority and best years…