R v WAKEFIELD [2010] NSWDC 118

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v WAKEFIELD [2010] NSWDC 118

HEARING DATE(S): 18 February 2010 EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 18 February 2010

JURISDICTION: District Court Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Overall sentence to be served by the offender consists of a non-parole period of five years and three months and a head sentence of seven years.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Armed robbery

CASES CITED: R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346

PARTIES: R v John Leslie Wakefield

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2009/00063081

SOLICITORS: Director of Public Prosecutions Legal Aid Commission - Offender

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: John Leslie Wakefield appears for sentence on two serious offences, they being two offences of armed robbery, both committed in July 2009, less than a year after the offender was released on parole for a similar offence.

2 Mr Wakefield has spent thirty-seven of his last forty-two years in prison. His history of incarceration began at the tender of age of eleven. Since then he has been dealt with many times, most importantly for the purpose of sentencing for this offence, for armed robbery offences. Some of these have been much more serious than the two for which I have to sentence him.

3 Let me deal with the facts of the present offences. On 2 July 2009 he went to Australia Post Office in Panania. He approached the counter, handed over a bag and said to the employee, "Put the money in the bag." At this stage he was armed with what is described as a black rubber pipe, but he held it in such a way so that it looked like the barrel of a gun. Certainly the employee, the victim of this offence, believed that that is what he was armed with. He reinforced her belief by saying words to her which could only convey the meaning that if she did not cooperate with him, he was going to shoot her. No doubt, the experience of being robbed in this way was a terrifying one. She, of course, was not to know that he was incapable of shooting her. She, of course, was not to know that her life was not at risk. I have got no doubt that she genuinely feared for her life, and that the effects of this offence will continue for some time, if not forever. After presenting the weapon to her and asking for the notes, the employee handed over just more than $1,000 and the offender drove away.