R v Drew [2023] NSWDC 187

District Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: R v Drew [2023] NSWDC 187 Hearing dates: 16 May 2023 Date of orders: 8 June 2023 Decision date: 08 June 2023 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Priestley SC, DCJ Decision: See [38 - 39] Catchwords: CRIME — Violent offences — Armed robbery — Offensive weapon Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Crime (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) Cases Cited: Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37 DPP (Cth) v De la Rosa [2010] NSWCCA 194 R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346 Texts Cited: N/A Category: Sentence Parties: Rex (Crown) Drew (Offender) Representation: Solicitors: Hatch / Sinclair for the offender Webb / Edye for the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions File Number(s): 2022/00051292 Publication restriction: N/A

JUDGMENT 1. Tombo Drew, the offender, appears for sentence in respect of one offence being robbery armed with an offensive weapon in contravention of section 97(1) of the Crimes Act. The maximum penalty is 20 years imprisonment. There is no standard non-parole period. 2. I take the maximum sentence into account as a legislative guidepost indicating the legislature's view of the seriousness of the offence. 3. There are no matters to be dealt with by way of the Form 1 procedure. 4. The date of the offending was 21 February 2022 and the offender was arrested on that day. At that time, he was on parole for an offence of being armed with intent to commit an indictable offence. For that he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment commencing on 4 August 2021 with a non-parole period of 6 months expiring on 3 February 2022. The custody record which was part of the Crown bundle which was exhibit A shows that the offender was released on 3 February 2022. Thus, the offender had been on parole for just 18 days at the time of this offence. 5. The offender has been in custody since his arrest. His parole was revoked, and the earlier sentence expired on 3 August 2022. One matter to be determined is whether the sentence should be backdated to commence prior to that date and if so by what amount of time.