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DPP v Pipicelli [2024] VCC 951 (20 June 2024)

Last Updated: 15 July 2024

IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA
Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication

AT MELBOURNE
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR-22-01581


DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS



v



DEAN PATRICK PIPICELLI


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JUDGE:
HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT
WHERE HELD:
Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:
11 & 20 June 2024
DATE OF SENTENCE:
20 June 2024
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:
DPP v Pipicelli
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:
[2024] VCC 951


REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject: Plea - sentencing

Catchwords: Obtain financial advantage by deception - theft

Legislation Cited:

Cases Cited: R v Grossi [2008] VSCA 51

Sentence: 30 months' imprisonment, non-parole period 16 months

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APPEARANCES:
Counsel
Solicitors
For the Director of Public Prosecutions
Mr P. Pickering
Office of Public Prosecutions



For the Accused on 11 June 2024
For the Accused on 20 June 2024
Mr Phil Dunn KC
Ms R. Zaydan
Garde Wilson Lawyers



HIS HONOUR:

  1. Dean Patrick Pipicelli, you have pleaded guilty to eight offences of obtaining financial advantage by deception and one offence of theft. The maximum penalty for each offence is imprisonment for 10 years. You have no prior criminal record. The prosecution tendered and read to the court a summary of opening, which is marked Exhibit A.
  2. Your offending took place between 25 January 2019 and 2 April 2020. During that period you preyed upon and wantonly deceived your business partner Vera Maschette, her husband Wayne Maschette and five other victims into entrusting you with a combined total of more than $700,000 of their own money, leaving them collectively out of pocket from your offending in a total sum of $578,033. Vera and Wayne Maschette vividly describe in their victim impact statements the hurt and the serious psychological impacts of your violation of their trust in you and the significant erosion of their life savings in the total amount of $335,633 for which they now seek compensation from you.
  3. The background to your offending is as follows. On 4 October 2017 Gippsland Timber Pty Ltd was registered - I am going to refer to that from here on as 'the company'. The two directors were Vera Maschette and yourself. You were also a contractor for the company and had known Vera Maschette and her husband Wayne Maschette for about five years. The business of the company was to purchase timber at wholesale prices and sell it to builders in the Corinella area, and I refer to that business as 'the business' during the remainder of these remarks.
  4. Prior to commencing as a director of the company and contractor to the company, you had worked in the timber supply industry as a sole trader and had both experience and contacts in the industry. Vera and Wayne Maschette had limited experience in this industry and relied on your experience. You had two personal bank accounts, one with the Commonwealth Bank and the other with the Bendigo Bank. There was also a company bank account.
  5. Dealing next with the nine offences to which you have pleaded guilty: firstly, in relation to Charge 1, in January 2019 you informed Vera Maschette that it was necessary to update the forklift belonging to the company. You stated that Longmuir Transport was providing storage of the company's timber and that they were using the current forklift for their purposes as well as loading and unloading the company's timber. You told Vera Maschette that you had agreed with Longmuir Transport that the company and Longmuir Transport would each pay half of the cost of the purchase of a new forklift. In reliance upon that information Vera Maschette agreed on behalf of the company to provide the sum of $7,400 representing the other half of the cost of the forklift.
  6. On 25 January 2019 you transferred to your own bank account the sum of $7,400 from the company Commonwealth Bank account, describing the transaction as, 'forklift'. Some months later in 2019 you produced to Vera Maschette a document which purported to be a receipt dated 25 January 2019 and signed by Glenn Longmuir on behalf of Longmuir Transport for the purchase of the forklift. The document was false as the signature of Glenn Longmuir was a forgery and no money had been paid or received by Glenn Longmuir for the purchase of the forklift.
  7. Dealing next with Charge 2: Darcy Atkins had met you in December 2018 through the local Stony Creek Football Club when you were the assistant coach and Atkins was a player. In April 2019 you approached Atkins and offered him a deal investing in Gippsland Timber for the purchase of timber and sale at a profit. You and Atkins agreed that Atkins would transfer the sum of $72,000 over a series of transactions which would be used by Gippsland Timber to purchase timber. You represented to Atkins that the money paid by Atkins would be used to purchase timber which would then be sold at a profit, and once the profits for the business reached $105,000 you would start making repayments to Atkins of the money invested. Atkins would then receive a profit on the sales of the timber purchased by Gippsland Timber.
  8. On 13 May 2019 you provided to Atkins a statutory declaration acknowledging that:
(a) the sum of $35,000 had been borrowed by you to buy timber;

(b) you would repay the sum of $62,000, which would include the amount of $35,000, by 20 weekly repayments of $2500 plus a remaining payment of $12,000 for a total of $62,000.

  1. On 20 May 2019 you provided Atkins with a statutory declaration acknowledging that:
(a) the sum of $72,000 had been borrowed by you to buy timber; and

(b) you would repay the sum of $112,000 which included the amount of $72,000 by 20 weekly repayments of $4000 plus a remaining payment of $32,000 for a total of $112,000.

  1. On 2 August 2019 you and Atkins signed a loan agreement you had prepared which stated that Atkins as lender would advance to you as borrower the principal sum of $105,000 to assist with financing the purchase of timber for your commercial timber business and the loan would be repaid without interest 104 weeks from the date of signing by instalments of $2000 per week commencing on 2 August 2019. You purported to provide security for the loan over a Mazda motor vehicle and a Ford utility and 'any available business stock existing in the Borrower's business at the time of default'.
  2. Between 11 April 2019 and 30 January 2020 Atkins made 19 separate payments to you, either directly or into your CBA bank account or to the company account, totalling $123,400. You obtained the moneys paid by Atkins by deception. The moneys paid to you by him were not used for purchasing timber, whether by you or by Gippsland Timber Pty Ltd. You repaid Atkins the sum of $91,000 by instalments between 27 April 2019 and 15 May 2020 but failed to pay him the balance of $32,400 you had borrowed or any profit on the sale of timber.
  3. Dealing next with Charge 3: in April 2019 you told Vera Maschette that you had an agreement to sell timber to Barry Williams of SML Construction in San Remo. You represented that the timber would be purchased wholesale and then
    on-sold to Williams. You told Vera Maschette that you had a contract to supply timber valued at $220,000 for a retaining wall project and produced a contract purportedly signed by Barry Williams. What you told Vera Maschette was false. No such contract was ever signed by Barry Williams and he never agreed to the purchase of timber from you or the company. You provided a quotation from Outlast Timber for the supply of the wholesale timber at a cost of approximately $153,000. However, you did not place the order with Outlast Timber but instead made a series of transfers totalling $93,081 from the company business account to your own bank account. You described the transfers as being to, 'Outlast Timber'. You obtained the $93,081 by deception. No moneys were paid to Outlast Timber and you used the moneys for your own purposes, falsely describing the transfers as being paid to Outlast Timber.
  4. Dealing with Charge 4: in mid-2019 you approached a close friend, James Mahood, and offered him a deal to invest in the sale of timber packs. Mahood had known you for about 16 years and you and he had played sport together. You told Mahood that you were buying packs of spotted gum timber for your commercial timber business. You told Mahood that you were getting seconds or non- perfect timber at a good price and would combine them with perfect packs for selling for a profit. You asked Mahood to lend you money to buy the timber packs and that you would repay the money at $500 per week. Mahood agreed to lend you moneys for the purchase of timber packs for sale at a profit. Between 16 July 2019 and 23 August 2019 Mahood made the 10 separate payments of $5000 into your bank account.
  5. You produced a loan agreement in almost identical terms to that you had provided to Atkins. It contained the following terms:
(a) you would borrow the sum of $50,000 on 26 August 2019 to assist you with financing of the purchase of timber for your commercial timber business;

(b) the loan would be repaid without interest 108 weeks from the date of signing by instalments of $500 per week, commencing on 30 August 2019; and

(c) you provided security for the loan in the same Mazda vehicle and the same Ford utility vehicle, and again, 'any available business stock existing in the Borrower's business at the time of default'.

  1. You and Mahood signed the agreement on 21 August 2019. You obtained the $50,000 paid by Mahood by deception. The moneys paid to you by Mahood were not used for the purpose of purchasing timber. You repaid to Mahood the sum of $15,000 by instalments between August 2019 andMay 2020 but failed to pay the balance of $35,000 to Mahood or any profit from the sale of timber.
  2. Dealing with Charge 5: on 6 November 2019 you informed Vera Maschette that you wanted to sell a half-acre block of land at 56 Woodbridge Circuit, Coronet Bay. You claimed that you had contracted to purchase the block some time earlier for $245,000 but it was now worth $300,000. You stated you had paid a deposit of $95,000. You told Vera Maschette that there was an opportunity for the company to purchase half of the block of land for the remaining $150,000. Vera Maschette as the director of the company agreed for the company to pay $150,000 for the company to purchase the half block. You produced to Vera Maschette a contract of sale dated 7 November 2019 from Andersen Property Specialists, a real estate business. The contract of sale was a false document and you had signed the document with a false signature of the purported vendor, Sandy Cape Pty Ltd. On 7 November 2019 you transferred the sum of $150,000 from the company business account to your own account, describing the transfer as being to, 'Andersen Trust Acc'. You obtained the $150,000 by deception. You had not used the money to purchase the property on behalf of the company but instead had used the money for your own purposes.
  3. Dealing with Charge 6: in December 2019 you informed Vera Maschette that there was an opportunity for the company to make a further purchase of land, being next to the first parcel at 56 Woodbridge Circuit, Coronet Bay. Vera Maschette agreed for the company to purchase the second block of land and authorised you to make payments for the land to the vendor. Between 12 and 18 December 2019 you made full payments from the company business account to your own account, totalling $133,560, describing the payments being to the 'Andersen Trust Acc'. However, no moneys were paid to Andersen Property Specialists. You maintained to Vera Maschette that you had used the money for the purchase of the land, giving her a note to the effect that you would '100% have land contract to you by the end of the week'. No such contract was ever provided. On 13 December 2019 you repaid the sum of $23,408 to the company account, describing the payment as from Andersen Trust account. You dishonestly appropriated the balance of the money, totalling $110,152 for your own use.
  4. Dealing with Charge 7: on 17 February 2020 you approached Daniel Hughes-Malkoun, offering a business opportunity to purchase packs of timber at a wholesale price to be resold at a profit. The approach was by text message. Hughes-Malkoun had known you since October 2019 when he was recruited by you to play for the Kilcunda Bass Football Club. You told Hughes-Malkoun by text that you were buying and selling timber and that, 'I'm supplying SJD Homes and they have ordered a heap of packs of spotted gum and Merb'. You told Hughes-Malkoun that the price of the packs was $2500 and that they were resold for $3900 so there was a return of $1400 per pack. Based on your representations, on 18 February 2020 Hughes-Malkoun transferred $12,500 to your CBA account for the purchase of the timber. You told Hughes-Malkoun that the timber was going to a builder called Brenton Petrie of Officer and that the timeframe for repayment by you was about two weeks.
  5. On 3 March 2020 you paid Hughes-Malkoun the sum of $19,000 purporting to be the repayment of the loan with profit. On 5 March 2020 you requested Hughes-Malkoun to pay you the further sum of $11,500, purportedly for the purchase of timber. You said the return would be $16,500 and therefore $5000 profit for Hughes-Malkoun. Based on your representations, on the same day Hughes-Malkoun paid to your bank account the sum of $11,500. On
    18 March 2020 you called Hughes-Malkoun and asked him to transfer a further $4000 to you. On 20 March 2020 Hughes-Malkoun met you at the San Remo Hotel and paid you the $4000 in cash. On 23 March 2020 you sent a text message to Hughes-Malkoun saying that you were not buying any more timber at that time due to COVID-19. You acknowledged that you retained the sum of $15,500 for Hughes-Malkoun. You had obtained three payments totalling $28,000 from Hughes-Malkoun by deception. You did not use the moneys for the purchase of timber packs but instead used the moneys for your own purposes. You failed to repay the balance of $9000 you had obtained from Hughes-Malkoun or any profit on the sale of the timber.
  6. Dealing with Charge 8: on 3 March 2020 you approached another player from Kilcunda Bass Football Club, Zachary Gorsuch, with a business opportunity. Gorsuch had known you for about four years. You told Gorsuch that you had bought a wholesale timber business and were supplying SJD Homes with timber along with other clients. On that day you sent a text to Gorsuch offering that Gorsuch could buy wholesale timber packs at $2000 each and they would be resold to a builder at $3000 per pack, making a profit of $1000 per pack. You also asked that Gorsuch keep the deal to himself so that other players would not find out. In reliance on your representations Gorsuch transferred the sum of $24,000 from his Westpac Bank account to your Commonwealth Bank account. On 23 March 2020 you sent Gorsuch a copy of a statutory declaration stating that you had borrowed the sum of $24,000 to buy timber and that you would repay Gorsuch $36,000, which would include profit.
  7. You also sent a copy of an agreement signed by you dated 21 March 2020 in a similar format as the loan agreements previously sent to Atkins and Mahood. It contained the following terms: that you would borrow the sum of $50,000 on 21 March 2020 to assist with the financing of purchase of timber for your commercial timber business, the loan would be repaid without interest 15 weeks from the date of signing by instalments of $500 each, and you provided security for the loan over the same Mazda and the same Ford vehicle referred to in previous similar documents and 'any available business stock existing in the Borrower's business at the time of default'. You obtained the moneys from Gorsuch by deception as you did not use the moneys for the purchase of timber packs and instead used the moneys for your own purposes. You did not repay any of the moneys paid by Gorsuch on 3 March 2020 or any profit on those moneys.
    1. Dealing lastly with Charge 9: in March 2020 you approached another player from the Kilcunda Bass Football Club, a Justin Marriott, with a business proposal. You sent a text message to Marriott stating that you were running your own timber business and were supplying a couple of companies, you had ordered 15 packs of spotted gum decking and it was ready for delivery, each pack cost $2500 and they resold for $3500, you needed someone to help buy the packs and they could keep the profit, and it would only take '2 weeks maximum to have the money back 100%'.
    2. On 5 March 2020, in reliance upon those representations, Marriott agreed to invest $20,000 and made two transfers of $10,000 each to your Commonwealth Bank account. On 17 March 2020 you met with Marriott at Marriott's house to discuss a potential investment of $100,000 in timber packs. You assured Marriott that the investment would be returned within three months. In reliance on your representation Marriott made two further transfers of $10,000 each to your Commonwealth Bank account. You provided Marriott with a draft contract in the same format as that you had previously provided to Atkins, Mahood and Gorsuch. On 19 March 2020 you provided Marriott with a signed copy of the contract with a loan amount to be $150,000, 'to assist with financing the purchase of timber for the borrower's commercial timber business', repayable within 12 weeks. In further reliance on your representations Marriott made
      10 transfers to your Commonwealth Bank account, totalling $102,000. The total amount paid by Marriott to your Commonwealth Bank account between
      5 March 2020 and 2 April 2020 was $142,000. You obtained the moneys from Marriott by deception. You did not use the moneys for the purchase of timber packs but instead used the moneys for your own purposes. You did not repay any of the moneys paid by Marriott or any profit on those moneys.
  8. Dealing next with the police investigation and your arrest: in March 2020 Vera and Wayne Machete reported you to police. On 6 May 2020 you sent a text message to Vera Maschette stating,

“I’m so sorry about everything I got caught up in gambling really badly and I spent all our money and lied about it. I know you know all the invoices are coming from my account as I’m trying to pay it all back. My dad is going to help me get all the money back asap. I don’t know how far your gone with this but my family have know idea except my dad. Please give me a chance to pay the money back quickly I know I let you and Wayne down terribly please.”

  1. On 12 May 2020 police executed a search warrant at your residence and arrested you. You were interviewed by the police that day and you selectively answered 'No comment' to questions about your offending but admitted your gambling problem and that you had sent the text message to Vera Maschette. On 11 June 2020, following police identification of other victims of your offending, namely Atkins, Mahood, Hughes-Malkoun, Gorsuch and Marriott, you were arrested again. You were further interviewed and made no comment to questions put to you.
  2. Dealing next with matters personal to you and evidence led and submissions made on your behalf: you are now aged 56 years, you have no prior convictions and you have not been involved in any other offending since your arrest in this matter on 12 May 2020. Your counsel provided me with an outline of submissions, which is Exhibit 1; a report dated 25 April 2024 from Luke Armstrong, psychologist, which is Exhibit 2; a letter dated 24 April 2024 from Sandra Luxford, a therapeutic counsellor from Gambler's Help, which is Exhibit 3; a GP mental health plan document completed on 4 April 2024, which is Exhibit 4; and a mental health assessment order dated 23 April 2024, which expresses the author's opinion that you were then at high risk of suicide or accidental death, and that is Exhibit 5.
  3. In addition, evidence was led on your behalf on two occasions from Mr James Harry, the proprietor of the Waratah Bay Caravan Park, where you had recently been residing and working until your bail was revoked. I found Mr Harry to be an honest and caring witness who has shown you considerable kindness and support in the period since your offending came to light. I have no doubt that Mr Harry was sincere in describing your fragile state and expressions of deep remorse for your offending. Equally, I have no doubt that he will continue to offer his support and friendship when you have completed your sentence and that he will do so in the belief that you have at least reasonable prospects of rehabilitation.
  4. At the commencement of these offences in 2019 you were aged 51 years. Your marriage of some 30 years, which had produced four sons, was failing. You and your family were living in rented accommodation in Corinella. You were working in home maintenance for a local real estate agent and doing some gardening. The detailed and helpful report of Mr Armstrong catalogues your early life, your educational, sporting and social history which is beset by signs of low self-esteem and mental health issues, leading to heavy use of alcohol from your early 20s to a point where you sought to conceal the extent of your drinking from your wife from early in your marriage. Your psychological conditions were exacerbated by the discovery of sexual abuse of two of your sons by a male relative of your wife. It seems that those events led to a deterioration in your marriage to a point where, by the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019, you and your wife barely spoke to one another despite living under the same roof.
  5. You commenced heavy gambling in early 2019. Mr Armstrong opines at page 8 of his report as follows:

‘Mr Pipicelli has battled with a chronic or persistent form of depression most of his life. He never sought treatment because any acknowledgement of mental illness was equated by himself and those close to him as a weakness. In many ways this was a belief system inherited from his father. Mr Pipicelli instead self medicated with heavy alcohol use, on a daily basis from early adulthood, I would venture to suggest in fact, your client is and was an Alcoholic for several decades. A central aspect of his mental health problems was amongst other features, a persistent, distorted self image of failure, specifically entrenched, poor self esteem. This in turn retarded his motivation to thrive, which only perpetuated a self image that he was an incapable husband; provider and father. Poor mood aggravated his psychological profile.

‘Mr Pipicelli presents with a persistent form of Major Depression, however his diagnosis is more appropriately defined as Dysthymia or Persistent Depressive Disorder. I would venture to suggest that the condition has been present for most of his life, more obviously pervasive post 2015. The distinction between Major Depression and Persistent Depressive Disorder is the course of the condition. For identification, in contrast to two weeks for Major Depression (single episode), depressed mood for a diagnosis of Persistent Depressive Disorder occurs “for most of the day, for more days than not, for at least two years”.

‘Whilst there was evidence of relatively heavy gambling in the years leading up to 2019, on the basis of his narrative; Sportsbet records and relative to his own personal affordability (i.e. disproportionate spending) he [would] most certainly have developed a pathological Gambling Disorder post April 2019 in my view.

‘The circumstances relating to his son’s experience of sexual abuse had the effect of accelerating depressive, premorbid belief systems and related disturbances in affect. I suspect that initial, temporary success in his timber venture as a sole trader activated an alternative reality for your client in the aftermath of a major family catastrophe; a deteriorating marriage; and his own deteriorating mental health.

‘Most significantly, the image of a business success countered decades of depressed mood. This alternate reality also created a paradoxical image of himself as a success to important stakeholders in his life: his children; his wife and his social circle. The problem was the image was a complete self deception and the means to maintain the image, a proven, failed business model.’

  1. Your gambling habit is evident from Sportsbetting sheets which I accept reveal a picture of gambling involving over 4500 transactions. No doubt, as is notoriously common amongst compulsive gamblers, you hoped to be able to repay your dishonest gains from winnings that never came in sufficient quantity. It was indeed inevitable that you would be detected and would have no ability to repay. Your counsel tells me that you have no assets and that you have been shunned by your father and your siblings, your former wife, your children and your community. Consistent with the testimony of Mr Harry, I am told that for the past few years you have resided at Waratah Bay Caravan Park. Over this time there have been a number of medical episodes where you have been an inpatient in the psychiatric wards of various local hospitals. Some of these occasions follow suicide attempts. You have recently been on a mental health care plan and were only permitted to take a limited number of tablets per day.
  2. It was submitted on your behalf that there are a number of mitigating factors, including your pleas of guilty having significant utilitarian value, your remorse, your prior good character and no subsequent offending, your demonstrated rehabilitation, the substantial delay between you being arrested and charged and today's date, extra-curial punishment and hardship.
  3. I accept that all of those matters are relevant in mitigation of sentence and that you have observed your bail conditions since June 2020. I accept that your mental health has further declined since then. You sought help with your gambling habit and with your mental health. You have abstained from gambling. Your isolation from family and former friends and community members in the Corinella area has involved a form of extra-curial punishment. I am inclined to accept that you are motivated to maintain your efforts at rehabilitation and that your prospects appear to be good, particularly with the support of Mr Harry. I accept that the delay in bringing this matter to finality has resulted in the added stress of having the prospect of a term of imprisonment hanging over your head for about four years.
  4. It is to your credit that you have used that time to pursue and demonstrate rehabilitation to date and your good prospects of continuing rehabilitation in the future. It is submitted that, having regard to the opinions expressed and the recent mental health issues identified in the report of Mr Armstrong, Verdins principles apply, particularly to reduce your moral culpability for your offending, to lower your suitability as an appropriate vehicle for general deterrence and to ameliorate the serious risk of further significant deterioration in your mental health, heightening existing suicide risk. Those submissions are based very substantially upon the report of Mr Armstrong, that is, the complete report in addition to the passage that I have already read.
  5. I accept that those factors are relevant to varying degrees to determination of your sentence, at least in a general sense. However, I am not persuaded Verdins principles apply to reduce your moral culpability or to render you an unsuitable vehicle for general deterrence. The evidence does not identify a sufficient nexus between your mental impairments and your offending conduct to merit such a finding. I accept that the combination of these factors will make it more difficult for you to cope with a prison environment during your sentence than a person without your mental impairments, and that there is a serious risk of substantial deterioration in your mental health as a result of your incarceration.
  6. I was referred to the decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal in R v Grossi [2008] VSCA 51, particularly at paragraphs 47 to 57, where the court considered the relevance of gambling addiction in sentencing in a case such as this. I note that according to the opinion of Mr Armstrong, your 'pathological gambling disorder' had apparently developed 'post-April 2019', which was after you had embarked on your offending conduct. Having regard to the judgment of the Court of Appeal, I am satisfied that the persistence and calculated duplicity which characterised your deception of six separate members of your own community over more than 12 months affords no mitigation of your moral culpability arising from your gambling addiction. Further, your offending conduct, extending as it did for more than 12 months and involving victims from your own community who respected and trusted you with their money, was a sustained and despicable breach of the trust reposed in you by those victims, by your community and by your own family. You let them all down.
  7. Despite your undertaking expressed in your text message to Vera Maschette on 6 May 2020, it is not suggested that you have any realistic prospect of reimbursing your victims in the foreseeable future, either alone or with the help of others. I accept that your offending was relatively unsophisticated and that by any logical appraisal was inevitably going to be discovered. However, it is equally apparent that you had ample opportunity to reflect on the nature and extent of your criminal conduct during the currency of your offending, yet you persisted in the face of full understanding of what you were doing and from whom you were obtaining your ill-gotten gains. You continued to present to your victims in a manner that convinced them to trust you. You had more than adequate opportunity to seek help at any stage. It is necessary that I impose a sentence that denounces your dishonest conduct and punishes you adequately for your offending, that I give appropriate but nuanced value to the principle of general deterrence and that I accord sufficient weight to the combination of mitigating factors relied upon by your counsel.
  8. The principles of parsimony and the need to promote your rehabilitation as far as circumstances allow require that I give due consideration to the submission on your behalf that a community correction order alone or in combination with a moderate term of imprisonment would meet the justice of this matter. I have done so, and I have indicated during the plea hearings that I am not so persuaded. Despite the matters in mitigation to which I have referred, I regard your moral culpability as substantial. However, I intend to give effect to your seemingly good prospects of rehabilitation and the desirability of your obtaining optimal mental health treatment in the community in fixing a non-parole period that will give you the chance of a significant period of supervised release.
  9. In recent days I have been assisted by both counsel in identifying current sentencing practice.
  10. Taking all those matters into consideration I sentence you as follows:
  11. The sentence of 17 months’ imprisonmernt on Charge 5 is the base sentence. I order that four months of the sentence on Charge 2, two months of the sentence on Charge 4, one month of each of the sentences on Charges 7 and 8 and five months of the sentence on Charge 9 be served cumulatively upon one another and upon the sentence on Charge 5.
  12. The total effective sentence is therefore imprisonment for 30 months.
  13. I fix a non-parole period of 16 months.
  14. But for your pleas of guilty I would have sentenced you to imprisonment for three years and six months with a non-parole period of two years and two months.
  15. I declare 9 days’ pre-sentence detention as the time to be reckoned as served on the sentence I have imposed.
  16. I make the five compensation orders in accordance with the drafts that I have received.
  17. Are there any other matters, counsel?
  18. COUNSEL: No, Your Honour.
  19. HIS HONOUR: In this order I will repeat the same custody management issues and suicide risk that are referred to in the custody management issues in the previous orders. The medical reports have already been attached so I think that that is all that needs to be done.
  20. MS ZAYDAN: As Your Honour pleases.
  21. HIS HONOUR: Thank you.

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