R v Piukala; R v Johnson

[2019] NSWDC 143

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:

R v Piukala; R v Johnson [2019] NSWDC 143

Hearing dates:

11 December 2018; 15 February 2019

Date of orders:

15 February 2019

Decision date:

15 February 2019

Jurisdiction:

Criminal

Before:

M L Williams SC DCJ

Decision:

Johnson: A term of imprisonment of 2 years, with a non-parole period of 1 year.
Piukala: A term of imprisonment of 3 years, 4 months, with a non-parole period of 2 years, 4 months.
See [38].

Catchwords:

SENTENCING – armed robbery – guilty plea – aggravating factors – victim impact statement – subjective factors – drug addiction – prospects of rehabilitation
SENTENCING – armed robbery – accessory – guilty plea – victim impact statement – subjective factors – mental health – drug addiction – prospects or rehabilitation

Legislation Cited:

Crimes Act 1900
Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999

Cases Cited:

DPP (Cth) v De La Rosa (2010) 79 NSWLR 1
R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346
R v Tran [1999] NSWCCA 109
R v Thomas [2007] NSWCCA 269

Texts Cited:

Nil

Category:

Sentence

Parties:

Regina (Crown)

 

John Piukala (Offender)

  Stan Johnson (Offender)

Representation:

Ms Brown (Crown)

 

Mr Waldersee (Offender – Piukala)

Ms O’ Shane (Offender – Johnson)

File Number(s):

2017/362749; 2018/376118

Publication restriction:

Nil

Judgment

1. Sometime during the morning of Thursday 26 October 2017 a man named Wayne Morris made contact with Stan Johnson and asked him to do a favour. He asked him to pick up some people and give them a lift somewhere. As a result of this Johnson drove his car to Sturt Street, Telopea and picked up two females and a male, the Taufahema sisters and John Piukala. They drove to Hunter Street and parked near Auburn Girls’ School. CCTV footage shows three people, namely Piukala and the two Taufahema sisters getting out of the car and walking in the direction of the school.

2. At about 1.10pm Piukala entered the school administration office wearing a knitted balaclava and holding a 15 centimetre hunting type knife in his right hand. He put the knife to the stomach of the female school administrator who was working in the office. She pushed the knife away. He pushed it closer to her stomach and he said,

I want all the money, listen to me, just do it, don’t scream, do as you’re told and you won’t get hurt.

She said,

Yeah, darling take everything, take anything you want.

3. She gave him a purple lunch box containing cash and an A4 envelope containing 40 smaller envelopes each with $50 in it. Later it was found that $5,180 in cash had been taken. The registration number of Johnson’s car was recorded by a witness and CCTV footage from various sources in the area captured much of this activity.

4. It leads to Piukala and Johnson appearing for sentence, having pleaded guilty to the charge under s 97(1) of the Crimes Act 1900, of robbery armed with an offensive weapon which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years with…