R v Marc Leopold Streel

[2018] NSWDC 15

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Marc Leopold Streel [2018] NSWDC 15
Hearing dates:	7 February 2018
Decision date:	16 February 2018
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Before:	Mahony SC DCJ
Decision:	Full time custodial sentence. For orders see [70]
Catchwords:	Dangerous driving occasioning death, drive manner dangerous
Legislation Cited:	Crimes Act 1900 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 Road Transport Act 2013
Cases Cited:	R v Berg [2004] NSWCCA 300 R v Jurisic [1998] 45 NSWLR 209 R v Whyte (2002) NSWCCA 343
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	Director of Public Prosecutions (Crown) Marc Leopold Streel (Offender)
Representation:	Counsel: B Queenan (Crown Prosecutor) P Harper (Offender) Solicitors: A Pankhurst M Spicer
File Number(s):	17/16398
Publication restriction:	Nil

remarks on sentence

1. The offender was committed for sentence on 19 September 2017 from Taree Local Court on a charge pursuant to s 52A(1)(c) of the Crimes Act 1900 of dangerous driving occasioning death – drive manner dangerous.

2. The maximum penalty for the offence is 10 years imprisonment and there is no Standard Non-Parole Period. The court has also been asked to deal with the following offence on a s 166 Certificate, namely, an offence of low range PCA – first offence pursuant to s 110(3)(a) of the Road Transport Act 2013.

3. The offences occurred on 17 January 2017 at Hallidays Point. A summary of the agreed facts is as follows.

4. On Tuesday 17 January 2017 the offender drove his white Nissan Patrol 4‑wheel drive vehicle from his home at Rainbow Flat to Port Macquarie to work on a construction site, leaving home at 4am. At 3pm that afternoon he drove his vehicle to a supermarket at Hallidays Point to buy groceries. He then went to the Hallidays Point Tavern at approximately 3.20pm where he drank five schooners of beer between 3.22pm and 5.32pm. He then began to drive home to Rainbow Flat along Blackhead Road. He had travelled west for approximately five kilometres and was approximately 300 metres to the east of the T-intersection of Blackhead Road and The Lakes Way. He was travelling at 80 kph, and the weather was fine, visibility good and traffic moderate.

5. The offender whilst driving lit a cigarette. In raising his left hand to take a puff from the cigarette, he dropped it and the cigarette fell down onto the inside edge of his shorts. The offender looked down to try and flick the cigarette out of his shorts, and whilst looking down, the left side of his vehicle crossed over the fog line onto the gravel shoulder of the road. The offender looked up and noticed the passenger side of the vehicle on the gravel shoulder of the road, and the vehicle approaching an aluminium guide post. He turned the steering wheel harshly to the right, causing a sharp turn, in which the tyres of the vehicle started to slide sideways. The vehicle continued to slide across the road onto the east-bound lane, his incorrect side of the road, and the car rotated clockwise.

6. At…