R v Thomas Joseph [2006] NSWDC 191

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Thomas Joseph [2006] NSWDC 191

HEARING DATE(S): 11th June 2006 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 06/11/2006

JURISDICTION: Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Nicholson SC DCJ

DECISION: Severity appeal upheld. Convictions confirmed. Periods of disqualification confirmed. Drive Whilst Disqualified (11/12/04) 9 months non parole period to date from 4/2/06 to 3/11/06; balance of term 6 months to expire 3/5/07. Drive Whilst Disqualified 28/1/06 and assault (4/2/06) 9 months non parole period to date from 4/11/06 expire 3/8/07; balance of term 11months to expire 3/7/08. Supervised parole; attend Pacific Islander Program. [para 16].

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Severity Appeal from Local Court - Drive Whilst Disqualified (x2) - assault occasion actual bodily harm - road rage - driver's licence - nature of - poor driving record aggravating feature - plea of guilty taken into account.

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1989

PARTIES: Regina Thomas Joseph

FILE NUMBER(S): 06/22/0289

JUDGMENT 1 HIS HONOUR: Thomas Joseph appeals against sentences imposed upon him at the Parramatta Local Court for four offences. Two of those offences occurred on 28 January 2006, one occurred on 4 February 2006 and the final offence occurred two years ago, on 11 December 2004. Of the two offences that occurred in January this year, one was driving whilst disqualified and the other was an offence of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in circumstances as will soon be seeing of what he has identified correctly, as road rage.

2 The offence on 4 February 2006 was an offence of driving whilst disqualified. The offence on 11 December 2004 was an offence of driving whilst disqualified. It was in fact the fifteenth occasion to that point in time, if my counting is correct, that he had driven whilst disqualified. The two subsequent offences now bring up to seventeen the occasions that he has driven whilst disqualified.