R v Matthew James STRATTON [2008] NSWDC 145

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Matthew James STRATTON [2008] NSWDC 145

HEARING DATE(S): 2 May 2008

JUDGMENT DATE: 16 May 2008

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: See paragraphs [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29] & [30]

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - sentence - form 1 - armed robbery with wounding

PARTIES: The Crown Matthew James Stratton

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2007/11/0813

COUNSEL: B. Rowe - the Crown E Wasilenia - Offender

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP David H Cohen & Co

JUDGMENT

1 HIS HONOUR: Over the summer before last Matthew James Stratton was responsible for a very large number of offences, most of which were of a similar type. He hit upon the idea of stealing handbags from those seated at restaurants or cafés by grabbing them, running away, and entering a Holden Commodore motor vehicle which had previously been stolen. The offender and those assisting him committed a number of offences each day. They would use each particular stolen Holden Commodore for many offences before dumping it and stealing another one.

2 He committed other offences too, one of which is an offence of extreme seriousness. When sentencing him for that offence he ask that I take into account a large number of offences on a Form 1.

3 Let me now describe the offences on the indictment to which the offender has pleaded guilty. I will start with count 8. On Thursday 18 January 2007 the driver of a white Holden Commodore parked it outside a café in Alexandria. He went into the café and left the keys on a bench inside it. Someone came into the café, stole the keys and the stole the car. That car was later used in a number of offences. Count 1 relates to what occurred the following day, 19 January 2007. On that day a number of friends met up in the city for a drink. At 2.30 am three of them were in Bridge Street. They were trying to get a taxi. As they walked along Bridge Street they were attacked by an accomplice of the offender. The attacker tried to grab the bag of one of them, Ms Elsdon. She resisted and was then stabbed twice to her stomach. Her husband Oliver came to her aid and he was also stabbed in the chest. That offence appears on the Form 1. The attacker, I repeat, an accomplice of the offender, ran to a waiting car. That car was driven by the offender who then drove off at speed. The other of the three people on Bridge Street that morning, Ms Gouveros, had her wallet stolen. Again, that matter is on the Form 1. A few days later the offender was arrested near a car which matched the description of the car that had sped away after the robbery and stabbing, and inside that car was Ms Gouveros' wallet.