R v Panagiotidis

[2017] VSC 395

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA Not Restricted

AT MELBOURNE

CRIMINAL DIVISION

S CR 2016 0191

THE QUEEN

v  

BILL PANAGIOTIDIS

---

JUDGE:	BEALE J
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	26 June 2017
DATE OF SENTENCE:	26 June 2017
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	R v Panagiotidis
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2017] VSC 395

---

CRIMINAL LAW — Sentence — Attempt to pervert the course of justice — Guilty plea at earliest reasonable opportunity — Less serious example of offending — Offender unaware that principal offence involved the death of a person — Good prospects of rehabilitation — Offender placed on Community Corrections Order — One special condition of 150 hours’ unpaid community service.

---

APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Crown	Ms S Borg	Office of Public Prosecutions
For the Accused	Mr P Matthews	MNG Lawyers

HIS HONOUR:

1. Bill Panagiotidis, you have pleaded guilty to one charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice. There was a detailed written opening tendered by the prosecution during the course of the plea hearing.  Insofar as that opening related to you, your counsel indicated that it was accepted.  I will annex a copy of that opening to the sentencing reasons.

1. It will suffice, for these sentencing reasons, to provide a very brief summary of the facts.  On 5 July 2015, your friend, Christopher Orfanidis, was involved in a high-speed car chase.  He crashed his car, a Commodore, into the Camry it was pursuing as both cars turned off the Western Ring Road onto the Ballarat Road off ramp at about 11.49 pm. 

1. Orfanidis then got out of his car and assaulted the passenger in the Camry, killing him.  The deceased’s name was Phi Long Ung.  Orfanidis also assaulted the driver of the Camry.

1. Orfanidis then got back in his Commodore and drove it to an industrial area in nearby Albion.  At 11.56 pm, Orfanidis called you on his mobile for assistance, telling you he had been in an accident.  At 11.59 pm, you called a friend who was a tow truck driver, to get him to pick up Orfanidis’ Commodore and take it to Western General Bodyworks where you worked.  You also drove to Albion and met Orfanidis.

1. The next day, you instructed your tow truck driver friend that you wanted to move the Commodore to another location.  At Western General Bodyworks, in preparation for that move, you began bashing in the right front guard of the Commodore with a sledgehammer, so it would fit down the driveway of your mother’s residence where you were planning to conceal the car, not repair it.  The Commodore was then transported to her home in Ascot Vale.  Police located it there on 8 July 2015. 

1. Significantly, the prosecution does not allege that you were aware that Orfanidis had been involved in an incident where he had killed one person and seriously assaulted another.  It alleges only that you knew Orfanidis had been involved in an accident involving the Commodore, and had thereby committed an offence of some kind.  It was with that limited knowledge that you performed the abovementioned services for Orfanidis.

1. Orfanidis was originally charged with the murder of Mr Ung.  You were charged as an accessory after the fact to that murder.  You spent some 25 days on remand before you were granted bail.  That was the first time you had ever been placed in custody.  At the conclusion of a joint committal hearing with Orfanidis, you were discharged on the charge of being an accessory after the fact to murder.  Your matter eventually resolved as a plea to attempting to pervert the course of justice on the terms I have briefly outlined.

1. It is accepted by the prosecution that your plea of guilty was entered at the first reasonable opportunity, and that you did not profit from your offending in any way.  Rather, you acted out of misguided loyalty to a mate.

1. You were born on 19 April 1976.  You were 39 at the time of your offence and are now aged 41.  You are the youngest of three children to your parents, who migrated from Greece.  Your parents separated when you were seven.  Your mother raised the three of you.  Your older brother, George, provided a written reference.  So too did your parish priest.

1. You left school after Year 11 and did a panel beating apprenticeship.  You have a good work record in that industry.  References were tendered from Spot On Panels in Maidstone and Western General Bodyworks in Maribyrnong.  You have worked at both places for many years.

1. You married when you were 21 and there are two boys from that relationship which unfortunately ended in divorce.  You are now in a steady relationship with another woman.

1. You have prior matters but nothing of a similar nature.  In 2006 at Sunshine Magistrates’ Court, you were put on a bond for an assault and throwing a missile.  In 2011, his Honour Judge Mason put you on a suspended sentence, four months’ imprisonment suspended for 12 months, for intentionally causing injury.  You have not been in trouble for several years now and I was told by your counsel that there are no pending charges. 

1. In summary, the following matters go in mitigation of your sentence.  You were not aware of the seriousness of Orfanidis’ misconduct when you offended.  You pleaded guilty at the first reasonable opportunity.  I find that you are remorseful.  You have now had your first experience of being incarcerated which you found to be a difficult experience.  You have not been in any further trouble since being released on bail.  There is nothing pending.  You have a good work record, you are in a steady relationship and you have the support of family.

1. Having regard to these matters, I consider you have good prospects of rehabilitation.  The offence of attempting to pervert the course of justice is a serious offence as is reflected by the maximum penalty that can be imposed.  Fortunately for you, your offending falls at the low end of the spectrum for such an offence.  The fact that you did not know the seriousness of Orfanidis’ criminality when you assisted him is pivotal to the outcome of this proceeding.

1. In R v Boulton (2014) 46 VR 308, our Court of Appeal recognised that a community corrections order (“CCO”) can be an appropriate sentence for even serious offending.  A CCO can accomplish just punishment, denunciation, deterrence and rehabilitation.  The prosecution conceded that a CCO with one special condition, namely unpaid community work, is open to me in all the circumstances of your offending and that is the sentence I intend to impose. 

1. I convict you and, provided you consent, place you on a CCO for 18 months.  There will be one special condition, namely, that you perform 150 hours of unpaid community service work over that 18-month period. 

1. There are a number of “core conditions” as well as the special condition of 150 hours of unpaid community work.

1. Most important of the core conditions is that you must not commit, whether in or outside Victoria, during the period of the order, an offence punishable by imprisonment.  If you do, you will be brought back before me for breach of the order as well as for the commission of the breaching offence. 

1. You must attend at Broadmeadows Community Correctional Services within two working days of the commencement of this order.

1. Pursuant to s 464ZFB(1)  I have also made a retention order which was sought by the prosecution and not opposed.