R v Scott BURGE [2010] NSWDC 16

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Scott BURGE [2010] NSWDC 16

HEARING DATE(S): 5 February 2010

JUDGMENT DATE: 5 February 2010

JURISDICTION: District Court Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: The offender is sentenced to imprisonment. and referred to the Drug Court for assessment as to his suitability for a compulsory drug treatment order.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Robbery - Break, enter and steal - Bag Snatching - Vulnerable victims - Physical and psychological injuries

CASES CITED: R v Ranse (Unreported) 8 August 1994

PARTIES: The Crown Scott Anthony Burge

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2009/11/1077

SOLICITORS: Director of Public Prosecutions Legal Aid Commission

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Scott Anthony Burge appears for sentence today after having pleaded guilty at an earlier stage to an offence of robbery. He asked that when I sentence him for that matter I take into account another serious offence, that of break, enter and steal.

2 The plea of guilty was entered at the earliest opportunity and so to reflect the utilitarian value of that plea, I will discount the sentence I would otherwise have imposed by twenty-five per cent.

3 On 9 December 2008, the offender was in something of a financial crisis. His partner had lost her job and it was entirely possible that they were about to be evicted from the place they rented. Mr Burge approached a number of agencies seeking emergency funds including Centrelink. He was unsuccessful. In those circumstances he made the decision to commit an offence in order to obtain some money. This was a seriously criminal decision. Near the Centrelink office two elderly people were walking, a sixty-nine year old woman and a seventy year old man. The offender approached them from behind, grabbed the woman's right arm and took her purse out of her hand. She, not surprisingly, tried to hold on to the purse but the offender was too strong and she lost her grip. She went to grab the offender's shirt but, because of the attack upon her by the offender, she was off balance and so she fell to the ground. In the course of doing that she was injured. She suffered a grazed left elbow, grazed palm and grazed right knee and also hurt her big toe. Of course, they are the physical injuries. It would be remiss of me to ignore the fact that it is inevitable that she would suffer psychologically. I have no doubt at all that this woman is much more apprehensive about simple things in life such as shopping and walking along the street because of what happened to her on 9 September. It was a cowardly attack.