R v Shaun Robert TUIRA [2010] NSWDC 182

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Shaun Robert TUIRA [2010] NSWDC 182

JUDGMENT DATE: 30 March 2010

JURISDICTION: District Court of New South Wales

JUDGMENT OF: Cogswell SC DCJ

DECISION: Non-parole period of 2 years. Balance of tem of 1 year.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - sentence - robbery of fast food restaurant - offence committed while on conditional liberty - plea of guilty at earliest opportunity - prior criminal record including sentences of imprisonment for similar offences - drug, alcohol and gambling addictions - no sentence but full-time custody appropriate

Crimes Act 1900 s 94 LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 s 50 Drug Court Act 1998 s 18B

PARTIES: Regina Shaun Robert Tuira

FILE NUMBER(S): 2009/210126

SOLICITORS: Mr Kernick for the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions Mr Debattista (Legal Aid Commission) for Mr Tuira

JUDGMENT

1. I am sentencing a young man whose short life so far has been marred by addictions to alcohol, drugs and gambling. He has been sentenced by the courts before, including two gaol terms.

2. On this occasion, while he was on a bond from another court and therefore at large in the community on trust, he took the opportunity to hold up a takeaway shop one morning and steal from the sole employee who was working there at the time.

3. Shaun Robert Tuira is now aged twenty three. He has been charged and pleaded guilty to the crime of robbery which is made into an offence under s 94 of the Crimes Act 1900. Parliament has fixed a maximum sentence of fourteen years imprisonment to that crime. It is important for judges to set out what happened in cases where they are sentencing people.