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. 4 The Crown accepts that this offence was part of a joint criminal enterprise or common purpose endeavour. The Crown accepts that the offender was the driver on this occasion. The offender, by his part, acknowledges and accepts that he knew his co-offender was armed with a knife, and accepts that the knifing, which did occur, was a possible incident of the original planned venture, which was to snatch handbags. 5 Count 2 relates to the period between 23 December 2006 and 27 December 2006. Some time in that period someone has entered another Holden Commodore, this time a red one, and stolen it. 6 Count 3 occurred after that red Holden Commodore was taken. At 8.35pm one evening a person by the name of Marcella Scarcella and another person by the name of Ross Greenaway were seated at a table outside a restaurant in Leichhardt. This offender walked out of a shopping centre directly next to the restaurant. As he walked past the table at which those two people were seated, he grabbed Ms Scarcella's handbag. It contained a number of personal cards, a Motorola mobile phone and $400 in Australian currency. He then ran across Norton Street to the western side of the road and entered the driver's seat of a parked vehicle, it being the red Holden Commodore I have just referred to. He then drove off in a northerly direction. Earlier on the same day, Sheerin Baig and her husband Shahid Baig were at a park in Glebe Street Parramatta with a group of friends. They were having a party. Ms Baig had placed her maroon coloured handbag underneath a park bench shelter. She left it unattended for a short time whilst speaking with some friends. At this time the offender approached the shelter, grabbed her handbag and ran off to the red Holden Commodore, again entering the driver's seat. He drove quickly along Glebe Street whilst being chased by a witness. Ms Baig's handbag contained a Playstation portable console, a blue wallet, personal cards, and a small amount of Australian currency. 7 Between 730am and 10.30am on Saturday 6 January 2007 someone has entered a further Holden Commodore, this time a silver one. Later on that day, a woman by the name of Ruth Dornam was seated at the Arc Café located at Wharf 2 at Circular Quay. She was sitting at an outside table and had her handbag on an empty chair next to her. In it was her wallet, driver's licence and other personal cards and a set of house keys. Again the offender simply approached the table, grabbed her handbag and ran away, this time to the silver Holden Commodore. The Holden Commodore then drove along Macquarie Street. 8 What he did was then go to the victim's residence in Penshurst and, using the house keys from her handbag, entered the unit. Whilst there, he ransacked each room and took a number of jewellery pieces from the main bedroom. After he had finished ransacking the bedroom he left the stolen house keys on the floor of the bedroom. 9 Count 6 concerns the following circumstances. Ms Dornam contacted police but she left prior to their arrival at Circular Quay as she was concerned about her house keys and address being in her handbag. She got back to her home at about 1.45pm and got into her house using spare keys kept by her neighbour. She then noticed that it had been broken into and ransacked. Several jewellery pieces had been taken from her bedroom. These were valued at over $2,000 and presumably had a great deal of sentimental value to her as well. 10 Count 7 concerns the events of Tuesday 16 January. Two further victims. Brooke Hall and Merrly Symons were sitting at a café at Darling Street Balmain. Both of them had their handbags on a spare seat at the table while they were talking. The offender simply walked up to their table whilst talking, (or at least pretending to), on a mobile phone. The offender then grabbed both handbags, and ran down a street chased by one of the victims. He then got into the silver Holden Commodore and drove quickly down the street. He was the driver on this occasion. 11 Then we come to count 9. It concerns the events of 21 January 2007. Mai Trinh was working alone within the Fresh Golden Bakery in Arncliffe Street Wolli Creek. She looked out the front of the store and saw the offender and someone else walk past in a northerly direction. Within a very short time the offender had entered the bakery and approached the counter where Ms Trinh was standing. The offender then grabbed the cash register and ran with it from the store. He got into another motor vehicle driven by the other person to whom I have referred and the vehicle was driven away at speed. The cash register contained $100. 12 Count 10 also concerns 21 January 2007. On this occasion the offender was still in company with another person when they parked a motor vehicle outside the Kawa Café in Crown Street Surry Hills. The two of them sat in the car for about five minutes before leaving the car and going to the café. The offender walked up to the cash register which was on the counter about two metres inside the café from the front door. He picked up the cash register and ran out of the café with the other man. He put the cash register inside the car, they got into the vehicle and drove away at speed. That cash register had $400 in it. 13 The Form 1 matters follow a similar pattern to those offences contained in the indictment. In the one month period covered by the charges the offender and others were involved in the stealing, and/or use, of a number of motor vehicles. These vehicles were then used to commit a number of bag snatches and cash register thefts from restaurants and cafés around Sydney, including at The Rocks, Balmain, Manly, Newtown, Leichhardt, Parramatta, Surry Hills, Erskineville, Woollahra, Pyrmont, North Sydney, Double Bay and Randwick. That list of suburbs shows how far afield the offender and others committed their various offences. 14 Money to the value of about $3,000 was stolen as well as property such as mobile phones , handbags and the like. Many stolen items were fortunately located by police as a result of their investigations. In the majority of the offences the modus operandi used to commit the steal from a person offences is strikingly similar. All of the twenty-seven victims were female apart from one male victim, they were all sitting outside cafés, restaurants or similar types of establishments, with their handbags or property being taken from their immediate custody. 15 The offender was born in Sydney, his mother and father separated when he was young and he had a very poor relationship with his stepfather. He rejected his stepfather's attempts at disciplining him by defying him and becoming rebellious. He left home at a young age, commencing to use cannabis at the age of fourteen and progressing to the use of heroin at the age of eighteen. Clearly his illicit drug use is the primary factor which has led to his many offences. He is in a de facto relationship with a woman who has a son from a previous relationship. He has spent a great deal of his life in custody, first going to a Juvenile Justice centre at the age of only fourteen. He was last released in late 2006. It was thus only a short time later that he committed these offences, was arrested and returned to gaol. A report from a psychologist suggests that, and I quote; "Mr Stratton has become institutionalised because of the amount of time that he has been in custody. He feels that he copes better when he is in custody because of the structure and 'no stress'. He would also find it easier to cope in gaol because he does not have to exercise any personal responsibility." 16 As I mentioned before, these offences were all related to the offender's illicit drug use. He has told others that when he is working he has not only an income but also some structure to his life, but when his employer closed over the Christmas period he found himself with little to do and no money, which led to him abusing illegal drugs and that in turn led to him committing the present offences, so that he could finance his addiction. 17 As is obvious from the nature of count 1 and the number of other offences committed by the offender, he will have to spend many more years in custody. As things stand at the moment, imposing a gaol term upon Mr Stratton is unlikely to be seen by him as much of a punishment, however that does not mean that the other purposes of punishment cease to have significant relevance. In particular there is a need to deter others who may be tempted to fund their drug addiction through serious crimes such as these and there is also a need to protect the community from further offences committed by this offender himself. 18 It is permissible for a sentencer to take into account the need to protect the community when imposing sentence, providing that the idea of preventative detention does not lead to a sentence being imposed that is longer than would objectively be required. 19 The offender can gain little comfort from the fact that it was not he who stabbed Ms Elsdon or Mr Elsdon. He was prepared to get involved in a criminal enterprise knowing that it was entirely possible that those who were robbed would also be stabbed. Despite that he performed the role of the driver of the getaway car. The offender pleaded guilty. Not all of the pleas were entered at the same time however. The plea of guilty for count 1 only came late in the proceedings and so I will discount the sentences I would have imposed on that matter by approximately ten per cent. 20 Sentences for the other counts on the indictment where the pleas of guilty were earlier will be discounted by twenty-five per cent to reflect the utilitarian of those pleas. 21 Count 1 carries with it a standard non-parole period of seven years. That is of course not of direct application given the offender's plea of guilty but it remains as a guidepost to the non-parole period which I should impose in the present case. Notwithstanding that the offender performed the role of a driver and was not the person who actually stabbed Ms Elsdon, I am satisfied that his criminality is in the middle of the range for offences of this type. It must also be firmly remembered that, when sentencing the offender for count 1 I have to take into account the very many matters on the Form 1. 22 There must of course be some accumulation of sentences. The number of offences on the indictment is of itself enough to justify that conclusion. The offender cannot think that, having served his sentence for count 1, he is entitled to be released without serving any extra time in custody for the other offences. Of course, however, the principle of totality applies so that there must be a substantial overlap in punishment as well. 23 There are no special circumstances in this case. Of course the offender will need assistance upon his release from custody if he is to spend any significant time as a law-abiding member of society. But the length of the sentence I shall shortly announce is such that sufficient time on parole is available even without a finding of special circumstances. Also it is very significant that all of these offences were committed whilst the offender was on parole. He was sentenced in the Campbelltown District Court for a large number of offences, including stealing from a person and robbery. 24 Notwithstanding that the offender's parole has been revoked, and he is currently serving the balance of parole in custody, I propose to commence the effective term of imprisonment from the date of the offender's arrest in this matter namely 23 January 2007. I impose sentences as follows: 25 On count 3 on the indictment the offender is sentenced to imprisonment for a fixed term of four years to commence on 23 January 2007. 26 On count 4 on the indictment he is sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment for four years to commence on 23 January 2008. 27 On count 5 on the indictment he is sentenced to imprisonment for a fixed term of four years to commence 23 January 2009. 28 On count 6 and 7 on the indictment he is sentenced to a fixed term of imprisonment of four years to commence 23 January 2007. 29 On counts 2, 8, 9 and 10 he is he is sentenced to fixed terms of imprisonment for a fixed term of three years to commence 23 January 2007. 30 Those sentences are all fixed terms because of the sentence I will now impose on count 1 on the indictment. I set a non-parole period of seven years to date form 23 January 2010 with a head sentence of ten years and four months. The overall sentence is thus one with a non-parole period of ten years and a head sentence of thirteen years and four months. ********** DISCLAIMER - Every effort has been made to comply with suppression orders or statutory provisions prohibiting publication that may apply to this judgment or decision. The onus remains on any person using material in the judgment or decision to ensure that the intended use of that material does not breach any such order or provision. Further enquiries may be directed to the Registry of the Court or Tribunal in which it was generated.