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District Court 13 December 2010

R v BARTON

[2010] NSWDC 298

Assault & violenceTheft & property
CRIMINAL LAW SENTENCE FORM 1 BAG STEALING ROBBERY ON A BOND AT TIME OF OFFENDING

Citation: R v Barton [2010] NSWDC 298
Court: District Court of New South Wales
Date: 13 December 2010
Judge(s): Berman SC DCJ

Background

The offender, a woman with a seventeen-page criminal history, appeared for sentencing on two counts of robbery committed on 1 August 2009 in the Fairfield area. On that day, she participated with two male co-offenders in a series of street robberies carried out from a stolen station wagon. A third offence of stealing from the person, committed on the same day against a fifteen-year-old girl on a train, had already been dealt with separately but was relevant for totality purposes.

The first robbery involved a sixty-seven-year-old woman whose handbag was grabbed after the offender threatened violence and raised a clenched fist. The victim subsequently became too afraid to leave her home. The second robbery targeted a twenty-seven-year-old woman, from whom the offender took both a handbag and a gold chain ripped from her neck.

The offender had a background marked by family trauma, early drug use beginning around age twenty, and a pattern of offending connected to substance dependency. At the time of the offences, she was on a bond and was not, on her account, using heroin. Following her arrest, she provided assistance to police and undertook to give evidence against her co-offenders at their trial.

  • What sentence was appropriate for two robbery offences, taking into account a Form 1 matter (being carried in a stolen conveyance without the owner's consent)?
  • What combined discount applied for an early guilty plea and an undertaking to assist authorities?
  • How should the principle of totality apply where the offender had already been sentenced for a related offence committed on the same day?
  • Whether special circumstances existed justifying adjustment of the non-parole period.

Decision

The court treated bag snatching as a category of offence carrying significant objective gravity, citing Court of Criminal Appeal authority that such crimes breach the peace and cause widespread fear, particularly among elderly members of the community. The impact on the first victim, who had not felt safe to leave her home since the robbery, was noted as a direct illustration of that harm.

The court applied a combined discount of forty per cent to reflect both the early guilty plea and the undertaking to give evidence against the co-offenders. The court declined to separately quantify each component of that discount. The offender's co-operation had enabled police to obtain evidence against the co-accused that would not otherwise have been available.

On totality, the court declined to make the sentences wholly concurrent, as that would have produced an outcome that failed to reflect the full criminality of the offending. Instead, the court applied partial accumulation across the three offences committed on the same day, staggering the commencement dates to give practical effect to the totality principle.

The court found special circumstances existed, arising from both the matters identified in the psychological report and the mathematical consequences of accumulating multiple sentences. The court expressed reservations about the offender's prospects of rehabilitation given her criminal history, while acknowledging she had expressed remorse and was on a methadone maintenance program.

Orders Made

  • For the robbery of the first victim (taking into account the Form 1 matter): fixed term of eighteen months commencing 28 April 2010.
  • For the robbery of the second victim: non-parole period of twelve months commencing 28 April 2011, with a total term of two and a half years.
  • Overall term of imprisonment: three and a half years, with a non-parole period of two years, making the offender eligible for parole on 27 April 2012.

Key Takeaways

  • The District Court confirmed that bag snatching offences carry significant objective gravity, consistent with the Court of Criminal Appeal's remarks in R v Ranse (1994), particularly where violence or threats are used against vulnerable victims.
  • A combined discount of forty per cent was applied for an early guilty plea together with an undertaking to give evidence against co-offenders, without the court separately quantifying each component.
  • Where an offender has already been sentenced for a related offence committed on the same day, the principle of totality requires that subsequent sentences be structured so the aggregate is not unreasonably disproportionate to the overall criminality, even if this means partial rather than full accumulation.
  • Being on a bond at the time of offending is an aggravating factor, though here it was one of several matters weighed in the overall sentencing exercise.
  • Special circumstances justifying a longer parole period can arise not only from individual rehabilitation needs but also from the mechanical consequences of accumulating several sentences.

Legislation and Cases Referenced

Cases:
- R v Ranse, NSWCCA (unreported), 8 August 1994

Legislation:
- No specific legislation was cited in the judgment text. The robbery offences referenced carry a maximum penalty of fourteen years imprisonment under the relevant provisions of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), as noted by the sentencing judge.