R v Steven Craig Francis

District Court

New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation:	R v Steven Craig Francis [2019] NSWDC 18
Hearing dates:	4 February 2019
Date of orders:	14 February 2019
Decision date:	14 February 2019
Jurisdiction:	Criminal
Before:	Mahony SC DCJ
Decision:	Full-time custodial sentence. For orders see [67]
Catchwords:	Conspiracy to commit armed robbery
Legislation Cited:	Crimes Act 1900 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act
Cases Cited:	Auimatagi v R [2011] NSWCCA 248 Couloumbis v R [2012] NSWCCA 264 R v Henry (1998) 46 NSWLR 346 Petterson v R [2013] NSWCCA 20 Sabbis v R [1995] HCA 29 Tyler v R; R v Chalmers [2007] NSWCCA 247
Category:	Sentence
Parties:	Regina (Crown) Steven Craig Francis (Offender)
Representation:	Ms L Burgoyne, Solicitor ODPP (Crown) Mr J McKenzie instructed by Scott & McKenzie, Solicitors (Offender)
File Number(s):	2018/103421
Publication restriction:	Nil

Remarks on Sentence

1. The offender pleaded guilty to an offence of conspiracy to commit a robbery while armed with a dangerous weapon, which occurred on 3 April 2018. The offence is a common law offence and the substantive offence is to be found in s.97(2) of Crimes Act 1900. The maximum penalty is therefore at large and there is no prescribed standard non- parole period.

2. The offender was arrested on 4 April 2018 together with three co-offenders, namely, Craig Raymond Francis (the offender’s father), Dale Donnelly and Dean Schumertl. The offender has been in custody since his arrest on 4 April 2018.

The Sentence Hearing

3. The sentence hearing took place on 4 February 2019. The Crown Sentence Summary became Exhibit A, it included an Agreed Statement of Facts. That document comprised 16 pages and outlined much of the evidence the Crown relied on by way of recorded conversations between the offender, his co-offenders and an undercover police operative (“UCO”).

4. The Agreed Facts may be summarised as follows: The offender’s father, Craig Francis, had for some years conducted cash-in-transit services for various licenced premises in the Forster/Tuncurry area, collecting cash from those premises and conveying it to the bank. That business had ceased in 2013. On 28 February 2018 the UCO had met with the offender and had driven around Forster. The offender pointed out a location where a cash-in-transit vehicle collected cash from and told the UCO about the route taken by the vehicle around clubs in the Forster-Tuncurry area. In March 2018 Police began monitoring the movements and activities of the offender and his father by way of a surveillance device and telephone intercepts, both authorised by warrants. On 18 March 2018 the offender met the UCO at a local tavern and told him that he and others were planning a robbery after the Easter public holidays. The UCO took the offender outside the premises to look in his car, showing the offender firearms and telling him, “I don’t fuck around”.

5. The offender told the UCO that his father had previously owned the cash-in-transit company for over 25 years but had lost everything in 2013. He told the UCO that he knew the routes…