R v Abrahamian
[2012] VCC 925
•4 July 2012
| IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA | Revised Not Restricted Suitable for Publication |
AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL DIVISION
CR-10-01491
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS |
| v |
| MARTIN ABRAHAMIAN |
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JUDGE: | HER HONOUR JUDGE COTTERELL | |
WHERE HELD: | Melbourne | |
DATE OF HEARING: | 4 July 2012 | |
DATE OF SENTENCE: | 4 July 2012 | |
CASE MAY BE CITED AS: | R v Abrahamian | |
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION: | [2012] VCC 925 | |
REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Catchwords:
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APPEARANCES: | Counsel | Solicitors |
| For the Crown | Mr J. Bessell | Office of Public Prosecutions |
| For the Accused | Ms P. Marcou | Michael J Gleeson & Associates |
HER HONOUR:
1 Martin Abrahamian, you have pleaded guilty before me to 12 charges of burglary. The maximum penalty for that offence is 10 years' imprisonment. You have also further pleaded guilty to 10 charges of theft. The maximum penalty for that offence is also 10 years' imprisonment.
2 The facts of the matter were opened by the prosecution and a summary of the opening was tendered as Exhibit A on the plea. Your offending occurred during a period from June to October 2009 and you were in fact arrested on 16 October 2009. You were remanded in custody and eventually bailed on 16 August 2010 following committal proceedings. Your pre-sentence detention for these matters is some 305 days.
3 You failed to appear at a final directions hearing before your trial and your bail was at that point revoked. You were then arrested in New South Wales on 14 September 2011 and sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for burglary and theft committed in that State with a minimum of nine months to serve. You are now on parole in relation to that sentence and you are subject to the New South Wales Parole Board. You were released on 13 July 2012.
4 The burglaries for which I am to sentence you today all occurred on residential premises and they involved some degree of planning. You made several phone calls on occasions to most of the premises which you burgled. You then forced entry and removed items which were mainly jewellery, cash, iPods and smaller items which you could easily take from the premises. Of the two charges, Charges 3 and 20, you did not steal anything; because despite your planning and several telephone calls, the proprietor was actually present when you entered the premises and you fled when she screamed. That was Charge 3. In relation to Charge 20 you simply failed to take any items with you. A total value of the property stolen amounted to a sum in excess of $170,000.
5 Two of your victims provided victim impact statements which attest to the damage caused to their lives, both personal and also to their lack of security and confidence they now felt in their own homes following your invasion. They also suffered financially. They are the only two victim impact statements that I received but it is clear that this type of offending has a significant effect on the victims of your offences. This is serious offending, committed in order to fund your drug habit and carried out with careful planning. It appears that it was in the form of a raid in this state. As I understand it, you were not involved in other activities here, you came for that period and carried out those numerous burglaries for which you are facing the court today.
6 In sentencing you I have taken into account the submissions of both counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions and your own counsel and I have rejected those submissions that were made that you should be sentenced only to the time you have already served in relation to these offences. In my view, that is inadequate given the seriousness of the offending and the community would be entitled to feel aggrieved by such lenience, while I do accept the pragmatic considerations that two separate paroles in two States would be very difficult to manage. I have also taken into account the principles in relation to sentencing which revolve around cumulation and totality of sentencing. I have considered those matters in my eventual decision.
7 Your personal circumstances are that you are living with supportive parents in New South Wales and you are supported in court today by your mother. You are now under control of the New South Wales Parole Board and it is a form of supervised parole which involves drug testing and appointments for psychiatric or psychological treatment and assessment. I take into account in sentencing you those factors which indicate that there is now a certain amount of control being exercised over you. Also, I take into account your plea of guilty and balance that against the seriousness of your offending.
8 I have also had regard to the sentence you served in New South Wales and to your prior criminal history. I have further considered general deterrence, that is, that others who would think to be involved in that type of planned burglary and assault on residential properties should be deterred by the sentence I impose from carrying out the same sort of activity.
9 I have also had regard to specific deterrence and that is that you personally must be deterred from committing this sort of offending again. I have also denounced your conduct on behalf of the community, which will not accept this type of spree involving careful planning and the pilfering of householder's property.
10 I am required also to impose just punishment in all the circumstances. Clearly the only appropriate sentence for this offending is one of imprisonment. However, given the submissions of counsel that I referred to earlier and to your position between the two different judicial systems, I find it appropriate to impose a term of imprisonment and partially suspend it. I make that order also in the interests of the community in that, as you have now served some 19 months in custody and it is to be hoped that you will, under the auspices of the supervised parole order, have an opportunity to undertake some form of rehabilitation and perhaps become once again a useful member of the community.
11 On Charge 1 you are convicted and sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment.
12 On Charge 2 you are convicted and sentenced to 8 months' imprisonment. Those two sentences are to be served concurrently.
13 On Charge 3 you are convicted and sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment. Two months of that is to be served cumulatively on the sentence imposed in relation to Charge 1.
14 On Charge 4 you are convicted and sentenced to 14 months' imprisonment and two months of that is to be served concurrently with the other sentence imposed in Charge 1 and the other sentence.
15 Charge 5 you are convicted and sentenced to eight months; that is for the theft and that is to be served concurrently with the sentence imposed in Charge 4.
16 In effect I will explain to you what I am doing because it will sound confusing. On each burglary you are convicted and sentenced to serve 14 months imprisonment. Each sentence has two months of it to be served cumulatively on Charge 1 and all the other sentences for burglary. All the theft sentences are to be served concurrently with the burglary which they accompany. I will go through those.
17 Charge 5 you are convicted and sentenced to eight months concurrent with the 14 months.
18 Charge 7, six months concurrent with the 14 months.
19 Charge 9, six months concurrent with the 14 months.
20 Charge 11, nine months concurrent with the 14 months.
21 Charge 12, nine months concurrent with the 14 months.
22 Charge 15, nine months concurrent with the 14 months.
23 Charge 17, seven months concurrent with the 14 months.
24 Charge 19, six months concurrent with the 14 months.
25 Charge 22, seven months concurrent with the 14 months relating to the burglary.
26 That will all be set out for you so you can see it but that is a total effective sentence of 36 months, which amounts to three years. Therefore, the total effective sentence will be the 36 months or 1095 days. I order that 790 days be suspended for a period of two years. I order that the 305 days pre-sentence detention that you have served be deemed time served and that will mean that you will be released from custody today.
27 Pursuant to s.6AAA of the Sentencing Act I declare that but for the plea of guilty I would have sentenced you to three and a half years' imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 18 months.
28 Sorry, I know that was really confusing I can see Mr Bessell is completely - - -
29 MR BESSELL: I put the pen down, Your Honour.
30 HER HONOUR: - - - confused. He gave up after about the second charge but you understand what I've done. It is just 14 months on each burglary and then varying thefts which are concurrent with each 14 months and each 14 months after Charge 1 is two months cumulative. Right.
31 MR BESSELL: Yes, Your Honour. There's only one other matter which is a disposal order in relation to some of the exhibits.
32 HER HONOUR: Yes, I'll make that disposal order if you have a copy of that.
33 MR BESSELL: Yes, we do.
34 HER HONOUR: There should be no complications with him being released today. I've ordered that he be released today.
35 MS MARCOU: Yes, so he should be able to come out of the dock, I think.
36 HER HONOUR: Yes.
37 HER HONOUR: Would you stand up for me please, Mr Abrahamian?
38 PRISONER: Yes, Your Honour.
39 HER HONOUR: The meaning of the suspended sentence is that if you were to commit any offence anywhere in Australia for which you could receive a term of imprisonment you would be brought back for breaching that suspended sentence. So over the next years you have to be particularly careful in whatever State you are in, otherwise you will be brought back to this court and dealt with for the breach and you will most likely be ordered to serve the two years which has been suspended. You understand that?
40 PRISONER: Yes, Your Honour.
41 HER HONOUR: So you are in a very delicate position. Thank you.
42 PRISONER: Thank you.
43 HER HONOUR: I've made those disposal orders and I'll get my associate to date them. Thank you.
44 PRISON OFFICER: Your Honour, if I can just interject a moment.
45 HER HONOUR: Yes.
46 PRISON OFFICER: I don’t want to complicate matters. He has been given a sentence from this jurisdiction and his bail was released from here. Normal protocol is that he has to accompany me downstairs so he can check the central records there's nothing outstanding in this State. But I don’t know if you're seeing it from another point of view.
47 HER HONOUR: I probably am seeing it from another point of view but that doesn’t mean - there's nothing else outstanding here, is there?
48 MR BESSELL: Not that I'm aware of, Your Honour. The informant's not here.
49 MS MARCOU: I think the only thing, Your Honour, is when the warrant was issued it was never served on my client; he's come down voluntarily. So I understand speaking to the informant that Your Honour has to either withdraw that or nullify that in some way.
50 HER HONOUR: So the warrant was never served?
51 MS MARCOU: No, he came down voluntarily.
52 HER HONOUR: We can recall the warrant.
53 MS MARCOU: Yes.
54 HER HONOUR: Do you have any difficulty with that, Mr Bessell?
55 MR BESSELL: No, Your Honour.
56 HER HONOUR: Right, we'll simply recall the warrant. I don’t know where it is. The informant probably has it, does he?
57 MS MARCOU: He probably does, Your Honour, now I'm thinking - - -
58 HER HONOUR: He's not here but he would have it, I presume.
59 MR BESSELL: Yes. I don’t know, Your Honour. Maybe there's some record of it at central records if there was a warrant issued in case other police located him for something else and so - - -
60 HER HONOUR: If I make the order recalling the warrant, that should alleviate that problem. I know what the normal protocol is but I think he can be released.
61 MS MARCOU: I'm happy for him to stay in the precincts. If there's an issue, we can sort that out, Your Honour, rather than get him to leave.
62 HER HONOUR: Because otherwise I'm worried that he'll go downstairs. So if you want to check with central records and he will remain in the precincts of the court.
63 PRISON OFFICER: Your Honour, if you want to take responsibility for releasing him from the dock, I will go with that because I'm also concerned that it can take quite some hours at central records to - - -
64 HER HONOUR: Yes, that's what I'm worried about. I'm happy to take responsibility.
65 MR BESSELL: And we haven't been told, Your Honour, that there's anything outstanding. So the informant would have advised us if that was the case.
66 HER HONOUR: I'm sure he would. I think it's just that question of the warrant, it's been recalled so I think I'll just release him from here. I'll take that responsibility. So you can now leave the dock.
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