Regina v Douglas [1999] NSWCCA 345

New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal CITATION : Regina v Douglas [1999] NSWCCA 345 FILE NUMBER(S) : CCA 60618/98 HEARING DATE(S) : 25 October 1999 JUDGMENT DATE : 25 October 1999

Regina PARTIES : v Dean Douglas JUDGMENT OF : Simpson J at 14; Smart AJ at 1

LOWER COURT JURISDICTION : District Court LOWER COURT FILE NUMBER(S) : 97/71/0127 LOWER COURT JUDICIAL OFFICER : Downs DCJ

COUNSEL : A: C B Craigie R: L M B Lamprati SOLICITORS : A: Central Southern Aboriginal Corporation R: S E O'Connor CATCHWORDS : Sentencing; value of assistance to Authorities not indicated; irrelevant matters taken into consideration; matters relied on by judge from his own knowledge not put to offender DECISION : Appeal allowed; Sentence reduced

IN THE COURT OF CRIMINAL APPEAL

60618/98

SIMPSON J SMART AJ

MONDAY, 25 OCTOBER 1999 REGINA v DEAN DOUGLAS JUDGMENT

1 SMART AJ: Dean Patrick Douglas seeks leave to appeal against the severity of a sentence comprising a minimum term of 2 years penal servitude and an additional term of 2 years for break and enter a dwelling-house and steal a considerable quantity of property. The judge adopting the facts provided by the Crown, stated them thus: "On the night of Tuesday, 17 June 1997 and in the early hours of Wednesday, 18 June 1997, the prisoner, Dean Douglas and a friend, Jason Fox, went to the home of another friend, Stephen Greaves, in Leeton. There were a number of other men present at these premises and they were Karl Ingham, Norman Ingham and Douglas Johnson. The group sat about and consumed alcohol. They discussed where they might steal some tools from later that night in order that they might sell them for the purpose of purchasing cannabis. The group left Mr Greaves' premises and when they got to 743 Dundas Street, Leeton, the premises of Phillip and Francis Dunn, they observed that there were not any lights on in the premises. It transpired that they were away on holidays.