IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA	Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication	
AT Melbourne
CRIMINAL DIVISION
CR-24-01247

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS		
		
v		
		
MICHAEL BROWN		

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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MAIDMENT 	
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne	
DATE OF HEARING:	8 & 22 October 2024	
DATE OF SENTENCE:	22 October 2024	
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Brown	
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 1673		

REASONS FOR SENTENCE

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Subject:	Plea - sentencing
Catchwords:		Attempted armed robbery – 6 related summary offences
Legislation Cited:	
Cases Cited:	
Sentence:		20 months' imprisonment and 3-year adjourned undertaking

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APPEARANCES:
	Counsel	Solicitors	
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Ms O. Go	Office of Public Prosecutions	
			
For the Accused	Ms J. Clark	Greg Thomas Barrister & Solicitor	

HIS HONOUR:

1	Michael Brown, you have pleaded guilty to an offence of attempted armed robbery on 8 January 2024.  The maximum penalty for that offence is imprisonment for 20 years.  You have also pleaded guilty to a number of related summary offences for which the maximum penalty is various levels of fine.  
2	You have also admitted a prior criminal history.  The prosecution tendered and relied upon a factual basis for sentence indication dated 2 October 2024 which is Exhibit A at the plea hearing.  They also relied upon a recording of the events that occurred in the convenience store during the offending conduct, along with a victim impact statement of the victim named in the charge, and an outline of Crown submissions on sentence, Exhibit D, which was supplemented by oral submissions by Ms Go on behalf of the prosecution. 
3	The victim impact statement makes it clear that at the time of the commission of the offence of attempted armed robbery, wielding a hammer as you were, the victim was 'really scared' and afraid that you might chase after him with the hammer.  Nevertheless, no injuries occurred.  I take into account the victim impact statement and accept that it must have been a frightening experience for both of the shopkeepers, including the victim named in the charge. 
4	The offending is serious, as the maximum term of imprisonment makes clear.  On this occasion it was prompted by you being refused your request for a cigarette.  Your conduct was utterly disgraceful, totally uncalled for, unprovoked and, as I have indicated, very frightening for your victims and potentially frightening for others in the vicinity.  
5	It was brazen, it was arrogant and it was committed in broad daylight, but was opportunistic.  To the extent it was premeditated, it clearly wasn't particularly carefully thought out or well-planned.  Nevertheless, it is serious offending but a relatively less serious type of offending for that offence.  You persisted for a while with the sledge hammer as your method of threatening the shopkeepers, but eventually gave up and left the premises in high dudgeon, without causing any injury or physically assaulting either of the victims. On the scale of attempted armed robbery offending, this comes well down the list in my opinion.
6	Turning to matters personal to you.  Your counsel provided me with a number of documents, including an outline of submissions on your behalf for the purpose of the sentence indication hearing, dated 2 October 2024.  That is Exhibit 1.  I was also provided with an Arbias report dated 12 March 2019, which speaks of an actual or possible acquired brain injury arising from a combination of substance abuse and trauma, based substantially upon your self-report.  
7	Nevertheless, I am satisfied on the balance of probabilities that, looking at all of the circumstances, it is more probable than not that you do have some mental impairment or reduced cognitive abilities probably arising from a mild acquired brain injury and probably arising from a combination of substance abuse and trauma of one kind or another to the head.  
8	You have led a somewhat itinerant lifestyle, particularly in more recent times.  You have a very substantial criminal history which is of a relatively petty kind over a period of years.  You do not have a strong work record.  You have had relationships but apparently were living rough at the time of your offending.  It seems that your last accommodation was some time in 2022.  
9	You have two children by previous relationships.  You have no contact with them.  You started drinking heavily at the age of 16 but you have not been a regular drinker for a number of years.  You started using amphetamines as a teenager and then ice.  Your use of those substances has been an ongoing problem and exacerbated by and connected with your life on the streets.  
10	You commenced cannabis use at the age of 16.  You were a daily heroin user between the ages of 19 and 26.  For about 21 years you were apparently prescribed suboxone by a general practitioner known to you.  That stopped when the general practitioner ceased practice.  Your criminal history suggests that your drug abuse habits have been a blight on your life and a substantial contributor to your offending conduct. 
11	Your commission of the various related summary offences: riding a bicycle on the footpath, throwing a missile to cause injury or danger, failing to wear a helmet, failing to obey a red traffic light, failing to keep left on a median strip and failing to obey a traffic direction given by a police officer, suggests defiant conduct aimed at the police who were seeking to stop you.  
12	Your criminal history does not suggest that you have good prospects of rehabilitation.  I am inclined to say that your prospects of rehabilitation are poor.  
13	It would be tempting to consider putting you on some kind of order which assisted you to deal with your drug abuse habits, but you have had other opportunities to do that and have not taken them.  I see little prospect of you being able to comply with a community correction order as things stand at the present time.  The Court is required to take into account that robberies, armed robberies and attempted armed robberies of convenience stores are prevalent, and that those who tend those stores are vulnerable to offending of the kind that you have admitted.  
14	The Court needs to impose sentences that denounce such offending, punish the offender adequately and have the capacity to deter others from committing similar offences, and also, to deter you from committing further offences.  There is an element of public protection in the sentencing of people for offences of this kind, particularly people with a criminal record of the kind that you have admitted.  
15	Having said all that, a number of these issues were canvassed at the sentence indication hearing and I indicated that a sentence of two years or less would be appropriate and within the range.  My recollection of the discussion at the sentence indication hearing suggested that a non-parole period of 18 months was not uncommon for offending of a not too dissimilar kind, and that there was merit in giving you a straight sentence, that is without a non-parole period, giving you a degree of certainty as to when you were to be released and not running the risk that you might end up not getting parole.  
16	You have accepted the indication that I gave and have pleaded guilty to all of the offences.  Doing the best I can to marry the various sentencing considerations, I sentence you as follows.
17	On Charge 1, you are convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for 20 months.  
18	I declare 261 days pre-sentence detention as time to be reckoned as served on that sentence.  
19	But for your pleas of guilty, I would have sentenced you to two years and seven months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 22 months.  
20	Insofar as the related summary offences are concerned, in respect of each and all of those offences, you are convicted and you are released on adjournment for a period of three years on condition that you give an undertaking to be of good behaviour during that period.  
21	That should give you some incentive not to engage in the kind of conduct that you exhibited during the police chase that is described in the prosecution opening, and otherwise to comply with the law.  It will be like a suspended sentence hanging over your head, because if you breach that order then you could be punished for those offences as well as for any offence that you commit that puts you in breach of that order.  
22	That order will be emailed to you and you are required, subject to your being willing to do so, to sign the order.  Once you have signed it, I will sign it and that will then dispose of the punishment for those offences.  
23	I also make the orders for forfeiture and disposal of property in accordance with the drafts supplied by the prosecution.  
24	Are there any other orders? 
25	MS GO:  I don't believe so, Your Honour. 
26	MS CLARK:  No, Your Honour. 
27	MS GO:  As the court pleases.  
28	HIS HONOUR:  Thank you both for your help.  I need to acknowledge that Summary Charge 3 of the related summary offences is withdrawn.  
29	So if I leave your client on the screen after I have left court - - - 
30	MS CLARK:  Yes. 
31	HIS HONOUR:  - - - can you just make sure that he understands what he needs to do. 
32	MS CLARK:  Yes. 
33	HIS HONOUR:  That he will need to sign it - - - 
34	MS CLARK:  Yes. 
35	HIS HONOUR:  - - - and it needs to be sent back, and then I need to sign his signed version of the order.
36	MS CLARK:  Yes, to complete that part. 
37	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  I will leave court whilst you do that. 
38	MS CLARK:  Yes, if Your Honour please. 
39	HIS HONOUR:  We'll adjourn and allow the signing to take place, hopefully perhaps with the cooperation of prison authorities, then sent back. 
40	MS CLARK:  Yes. 
	(Short adjournment.)
41	HIS HONOUR:  That document is now signed, so the order is now in place.  You will get a copy of it in due course. 
42	MS CLARK:  If Your Honour pleases. 
43	MS GO:  As the court pleases. 
44	HIS HONOUR:  Yes.  Thank you.  
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