R v Zia YOUSIF [2009] NSWDC 290

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Zia YOUSIF [2009] NSWDC 290

HEARING DATE(S): 17 September 2009

JUDGMENT DATE: 17 September 2009

JURISDICTION: District Court Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: The offender is sentenced to imprisonment. I set a non-parole period of eighteen months. I set a head sentence of three and a half years.

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Sentence - Robbery in company while armed - Breach of parole

CASES CITED: R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346

PARTIES: The Crown Zia Yousif

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2009/11/0423

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Legal Aid Commission

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Zia Yousif appears for sentence today having pleaded guilty at an early opportunity, in fact the earliest opportunity he had, to an offence of robbery in company. There seems to be no challenge to the circumstance that I can take into account the fact that at the time of this robbery he was armed. The Crown has tendered photographs to demonstrate that. Mr Kozanecki has raised no objection.

2 The offence occurred when the offender and others, whom he has refused to name, entered a service station whilst the two employees there were restocking the shelves. It was 4.30 in the morning. They were threatened by the offender and his co-offenders. As a result they cooperated. The offenders then took the cash register and its contents and the mobile phones of each of the employees. As well, almost as a parting gesture on their way out, one of the offenders took two cases of soft drink and some lollies.

3 This offence was one of a number committed by the offender around the same time. He was dealt with for those other matters by his Honour Judge Conlon who sentenced him in the Wollongong District Court in September 2006. The offender was released to parole following his Honour's sentence on 5 June 2007 but returned to custody after he committed further offences and breached his parole on 17 July 2008.