R v McDougall [2020] NSWDC 880

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v McDougall [2020] NSWDC 880 Hearing dates: 11 September 2020 Date of orders: 15 October 2020 Decision date: 15 October 2020 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Bright DCJ Decision: Term of imprisonment of 2 years and 9 months with a non-parole period of 1 year and 10 months. Licence disqualification for 1 year, 10 months and 20 days. Catchwords: CRIME — Driving offences — Dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm SENTENCING — Aggravating factors — Breach of conditional liberty SENTENCING — Mitigating factors — Remorse SENTENCING — Relevant factors on sentence — Deterrence Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) Road Transport Act 2013 (NSW) Cases Cited: Attorney-General's Application Under Section 37 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act (1999) No 1 of 2002 (2002) 56 NSWLR 146 R v Bugmy (2013) 249 CLR 571 R v Manok [2017] NSWCCA 232 R v Whyte (2002) 55 NSWLR 252 Category: Sentence Parties: Regina (Crown) David McDougall (Offender) Representation: Solicitors: Ms H Cantor (Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions) Mr S Singh-Panwar (Offender) File Number(s): 2018/397715 Publication restriction: Nil

Judgment 1. David McDougall, 29 years of age, appears for sentence in relation to one offence of dangerous driving occasioning grievous bodily harm, drive manner dangerous (the victim is Toni Chaloner), an offence pursuant to s 52A(3)(c), Crimes Act 1900 (NSW). The maximum prescribed penalty for that offence is 7 years imprisonment. There is no prescribed standard non‑parole period. There is an automatic licence disqualification of 3 years and a minimum disqualification of 12 months. 2. When dealing with the offender for that offence, the Court is taking into account a further offence on a Form 1 of cause bodily harm by misconduct in charge of a motor vehicle (victim Rachel Stancombe), an offence pursuant to s 53, Crimes Act. The maximum prescribed penalty for that offence is two years' imprisonment. 3. The offender pleaded guilty on 5 May 2020 at the Wyong Local Court. Having regard to the timing of the plea, I propose to allow a discount on sentence of 25%. 4. The offending occurred on 27 December 2018. The offender was arrested on that same date and granted bail. He subsequently spent 15 days bail refused in August 2019 and has also been bail refused since 21 February 2020. I will say more about the commencement date of the sentence later in my remarks.