Police v Aitken [2020] NSWLC 14

Local Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Police v Aitken [2020] NSWLC 14 Hearing dates: 3 and 7 August 2020 Decision date: 09 October 2020 Jurisdiction: Criminal Before: Stewart LCM Decision: (1) An aggregate sentence of imprisonment of 4 years 4 days is made against the offender, with a Non-Parole Period of 2 years, 8 months. (2) The offender was disqualified for 5 years for the Pursuit, and on each of 2 Drive Disqualified matters for 12 months. All disqualifications were concurrent commencing on 25 November 2022. (3) A finding of special circumstances is made regarding the offender's drug and alcohol issues. Catchwords: Recidivist disqualified driver – recidivist offender for police pursuits – significant history of major traffic offences – on parole for similar offending – on other conditional liberty – need for specific deterrence – need for general deterrence – need for protection of community – record an aggravating factor – principle of totality – jurisdictional limit – Local Court limit of aggregate sentence – Local Court limit of sentence where offender serving sentence already – principles from Veen (No.2) enlivened Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1900 (NSW) Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) Road Transport Act 2013 (NSW) Cases Cited: Aitken v R [2014] NSWCCA 241 Beale v R [2015] NSWCCA 120 Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37 Cahyadi v R [2007] NSWCCA 1 Greaves v R [2020] NSWCCA 140 Imbornone v R [2017] NSWCCA 144 Jibran v R [2020] NSWCCA 86 Markarian v The Queen (2005) CLR 357 Muldrock v The Queen (2011) 244 CLR 120 R v Merrin [2007] NSWCCA 255 Nguyen v R [2007] NSWCCA 14 R v Thomson [2000] NSWCCA 294 Tsakonas v R [2009] NSWCCA 258 The Queen v De Simoni [1981] HCA 31 Veen v The Queen (No. 2) (1988) 164 CLR 465 Category: Sentence Parties: NSW Police Force (prosecution) Matthew Aitken (defendant) Representation: Sergeant Pearce (prosecution) Solicitors: V Vijay, ALS File Number(s): 2020/00094021 and 2020/00095014 Publication restriction: Nil