R v Hussein TAOUBE [2008] NSWDC 369

New South Wales District Court

CITATION: R v Hussein TAOUBE [2008] NSWDC 369

HEARING DATE(S): 12 December 2008

JUDGMENT DATE: 12 December 2008

JURISDICTION: District Court Criminal

JUDGMENT OF: Berman SC DCJ

DECISION: See paragraphs [18], [19], [20] & [21]

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW - Sentence - Form 1 - Armed robbery - Robbery in company - Addiction to drugs

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

PARTIES: The Crown Hussein Taoube

FILE NUMBER(S): DC 2007/11/0580; DC 2008/11/0011; DC 2008/11/1239

COUNSEL: M. Coroneos - Offender

SOLICITORS: Director of Public Prosecutions Hanby & Associates Lawyers

SENTENCE

1 HIS HONOUR: Hussein Taoube appears for sentence today on three offences involving armed robbery or being armed with intent to rob. These three offences were committed over a relatively short period when Mr Taoube was under the influence of drugs. When I say under the influence, what I mean is that the motivation for the offences was to get money so that Mr Taoube could buy drugs to feed the addiction. The offences were all very serious, in particular one I will shortly describe, where the shopkeeper was present with both his wife and two young children.

2 The offender pleaded guilty in this court to two of the matters and pleaded guilty in the Local Court, and was committed for sentence on the remainder. I will deal with the facts, not in chronological order, but in the order in which the matters were presented to me.

3 The first offence was committed on 17 April 2000. On that day, the offender went to a service station in Tempe. He selected a drink and asked for a Vodafone recharge. When the shopkeeper asked for the money, the offender produced a knife, saying to the shopkeeper "Give me whatever you have in the register." The shopkeeper then did two things. He tried to hit the panic button and he picked up a blue baseball bat. He held that at his side. The offender grabbed the drink bottle and ran away, hopping into a getaway car that was positioned in the service station. He had previously filled up the petrol too. So the offender thus committed an offence of being armed with intent to rob. He also stole the Gatorade and the petrol. Those two matters appear on a Form 1 attached to the substantive offence. They are part and parcel very much of the substantive offence, and no extra punishment is appropriate. The offender was arrested a few days later. He denied, however, being the person who was identified in closed-circuit television footage committing the offence, and continued that denial until he appeared for trial in this court, when he eventually pleaded guilty.