R v Joshua Stephen TATE [2008] NSWDC 331

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Joshua Stephen TATE [2008] NSWDC 331

26 September 2008 HEARING DATE(S): 12 December 2008 17 December 2008

JUDGMENT DATE: 17 December 2008

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Sentenced to imprisonment with an effective overall sentence consisting of 2 years imprisonment with a 3 year and 3 month non-parole period.

CATCHWORDS: Criminal law - Sentence - Form 1 - Aggravated break enter and steal - In company

CASES CITED: R v Ponfield (1999) 48 NSWLR 327

PARTIES: The Crown Joshua Stephen Tate

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 08/11/0471

COUNSEL: S Torpey (Offender)

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Legal Aid Commission

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Joshua Tate appears for sentence today on two separate offences of break enter and steal. When I sentence him for the first of those committed on 3 October 2006, he asks that I take into account a number of other matters also of aggravated break enter and steal. They appear on a Form 1. The circumstance of aggravation of each of the two offences on the indictment and all of the offences on the Form 1 is that the offender was in company at the time he committed these offences.

2 These aggravated break enter and steal offences carry with them a standard non-parole period of five years. Of course given the circumstance that the offender pleaded guilty the standard non-parole period is not of direct application but it remains as an important guidepost which I should bear in mind when I assess the appropriate sentence for each of the offences.

3 The fact that aggravated break enter and steal offences appear in a list of matters carrying a standard non-parole period suggests that Parliament was concerned to ensure that those who commit offences of this kind are adequately punished. There is the unfortunate problem that because offences such as this have become so commonplace that their perceived seriousness is reduced. For years the court of Criminal Appeal has been emphasising the seriousness of offences such as these and the consequences for the community generally of their regular commission. Those are matters I will also bear in mind when I formulate the appropriate sentences.