R v Paul Robert SMITH [2006] NSWDC 156

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Paul Robert SMITH [2006] NSWDC 156

HEARING DATE(S): 01/06/2006

JUDGMENT DATE: 1 June 2006

EX TEMPORE JUDGMENT DATE : 06/01/2006

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: Remand under s11 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act

CATCHWORDS: Criminal Law - Sentence - Demand money with menaces

LEGISLATION CITED: Crimes Act Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999

CASES CITED: R v Di Simoni (1981) 147 CLR 383 R v Bakewell unreported CCA 27 June 1996

PARTIES: The Crown Paul Robert Smith

FILE NUMBER(S): 05/11/0706

SOLICITORS: NSW DPP Legal Aid Commission

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Paul Robert Smith appears for sentence today having pleaded guilty to an offence of demanding money with menaces. That plea was entered on the first day that Mr Smith was due to stand trial. However he was due to stand trial for a different offence. It appears that the Crown concedes that his plea of guilty to demand money with menaces was made at the first opportunity. Thus even though the matter had occupied the time of the courts, both in the Local court and this Court to the stage where Mr Smith's trial was ready to proceed, it is in these circumstances appropriate that I treat the plea as being entered at the earliest opportunity.

2 Mr Smith suffered a motorbike accident in 2001 and is now in a wheelchair. Despite that fact, he has continued to commit offences involving violence and threats of violence. Whilst Mr Smith is deserving of sympathy, and indeed a great deal of sympathy, for the situation in which he finds himself, the fact that he is confined to a wheelchair does not give him a licence to commit serious offences without being punished. That is an important factor to bear in mind as I outline the facts of the present matter.