R v Alan COSGROVE [2007] NSWDC 375

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Alan COSGROVE [2007] NSWDC 375

HEARING DATE(S): 11 May 2007 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 11 May 2007

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Sentenced to imprisonment with a non-parole period of one year and a head sentence of three years.

CATCHWORDS: Criminal law - Sentence - Break, enter and steal - Form 1 - DNA Analysis - Significant drug user

PARTIES: The Crown Alan Cosgrove

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2006/11/0047

COUNSEL: J Watts - Offender

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Catherine Hunter

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Alan Cosgrove appears for sentence today after having pleaded guilty at an early stage to an offence of break, enter and steal. Because of the plea, I will discount the sentence I would otherwise have imposed by twenty-five per cent.

2 When I sentence him for that matter he has asked that I take into account a matter on a Form 1, which is also a break, enter with intent to steal committed at about the same time as the matter for which Mr Cosgrove is to be sentenced.

3 These offences were detected of course soon after they were committed, but the offender's involvement was not made known until the results of DNA analysis were obtained. Although the offences were committed in December 2004, it was not until mid 2005 that the offender was charged with them. That, of course, raises a number of issues. The delay, for which the offender is not responsible, means that the offender is in a different position to the position he would have been in had he been dealt with soon after the commission of these offences. In particular in the offender's case he was in the meantime sentenced for an offence of robbery. His non-parole period for that offence expired on 24 November 2006, and so the offender's custody since that date has been solely referable to this matter.