R v English

[2010] NSWDC 308

CITATION:	R v ENGLISH [2010] NSWDC 308
HEARING DATE(S):	5 November 2010
EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE:	5 November 2010
JURISDICTION:	Criminal
JUDGMENT OF:	Berman SC DCJ
DECISION:	The overall term is one consisting of a non-parole period of five years, and a total overall term of seven and a half years.
CATCHWORDS:	CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Aggravated take and drive a motor vehicle with a person whilst armed with a weapon - Armed robbery - Carjacking - Aggravated assault - Offender on bail at the time of the commission of the offence - Form 1
CASES CITED:	R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346; (1999) 106 A Crim R
PARTIES:	The Crown Robert Cecil English
FILE NUMBER(S):	DC 2009/191250; DC 2009/194437
SOLICITORS:	Director of Public Prosecutions Legal Aid Commission

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Robert Cecil English appears for sentence today after having pleaded guilty, in this Court shortly before his trial was due to commence, to three serious offences. The first is an offence of aggravated take and drive a motor vehicle with a person whilst armed with a weapon. That has a maximum penalty of fourteen years with a standard non-parole period of five years. The second offence is an offence of armed robbery, carrying a maximum penalty of twenty years. Although it is the second on the Crown’s sentence summary it appears to have been committed shortly after the offence which is third on the Crown sentence summary, another offence of armed robbery with a maximum penalty of twenty years imprisonment. When I sentence him for the second armed robbery on the Crown sentence summary Mr English asks that I take into account a matter on a Form 1, that being an additional offence related to carjacking and aggravated assault with intent to take or drive a motor vehicle. The three offences for which the offender must be specifically sentenced all occurred on the same day, 7 July 2009, whilst the matter on the Form 1 occurred a little while thereafter, 25 August 2009.

2 On 7 July Mr English was under the influence of both Xanax and heroin. His intoxication by those drugs probably had a part to play in his decision to commit the three offences on that day. His ability to think rationally was clearly affected by the drugs that he had taken. He decided that he would commit an offence of armed robbery but he needed to get a getaway car. He therefore waited in the Westfield car park at Hurstville. At about 4.20 that day a woman drove into the car park and parked her car. The offender approached the driver. He placed a knife to her stomach, told her to give him the car keys and her handbag. Not surprisingly the victim did as she was told. Mr English then got into her car and drove away. The victim’s handbag, which was in the car, contained about $180 in cash and various other personal items.

3 A little while thereafter…