IN THE COUNTY COURT OF VICTORIA	Revised
Not Restricted
Suitable for Publication	
AT GEELONG
CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

CR 23-01613

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS		
		
v		
		
AIDAN THOMSON		
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JUDGE:	HIS HONOUR JUDGE MULLALY	
WHERE HELD:	Geelong	
DATE OF HEARING:	13 November 2024	
DATE OF SENTENCE:	13 November 2024	
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	DPP v Thomson	
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2024] VCC 1813	

REASONS FOR SENTENCE
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Subject:				CRIMINAL LAW - SENTENCE
Catchwords:			Theft of a Motor Vehicle; Aggravated Burglary; Burglary; Theft; Obtaining Financial Advantage by Deception; Handling Stolen Goods; Possession of a Drug of Dependence; Trespass; Youthful Offender. 
Legislation Cited:		Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic)
Cases Cited:			Director of Public Prosecutions v Ristic [2024] VSCA 251; Azzopardi v The Queen [2011] VSCA 372; 35 VR 43; 219 A Crim R 369; R v Mills [1998] 4 VR 235; Director of Public Prosecutions v Lawrence [2004] 10 VR 125; DPP v Reynolds [2022] VSCA 263; 71 VR 336
Sentence:			Total Effective Sentence of four years and four months imprisonment with a non-parole period of two years; Convicted and fined $100.00; Licence cancelled and disqualified for a period of 2 years.
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APPEARANCES:
	Counsel	Solicitors	
For the Director of Public Prosecutions	Mr A. Moore	Office of Public Prosecutions	
			
For the Accused	Mr V. Vuu	Cao & Co Legal	

HIS HONOUR:  
1	Aidan Thomson, in the first days of May 2023 you embarked on a crime spree which mainly involved stealing cars, but also breaking into homes.  You have pleaded guilty to seven charges of theft of a car; one charge of aggravated burglary; one charge of burglary; two other charges of theft; a charge of obtaining property by deception which involved using a stolen credit card to pay for your goods; a charge of handling stolen goods; and finally three charges of possession of a drug of dependence.  There was also a summary charge of trespass.  
2	You committed many of the offences in company with another man, Cody Williams, who was sentenced in the Magistrate's Court for a single theft of car and some driving-type offences.  He received 163 days' imprisonment which was the time he had served, together with an 18 month community corrections order.  As discussed with your counsel, issues of parity seem to fall away.
3	The full details of your crimes were set out in the summary of prosecution opening for the plea.  It was tendered at the plea today.  I will further precis the facts and circumstances but I make it clear that I have read the whole summary and taken it all into account.
4	I mention that this offending behaviour was in the first days of May and that was the case, save for Charge 1, which was the theft of a car.  It was stolen on 9 April 2023 from a premises burgled that day.  The car was located at your home a week or so later.
5	Thereafter, the next theft of a car was overnight from 1-2 May 2023.  This car was likewise found at your home address.
6	On 1 May 2023 the victim of the next set of crimes left the keys to two cars in a handbag in her kitchen.  She and her family went to bed.  She awoke to discover the back door open and her handbag missing and both cars stolen.  Text messages between you and the co-accused made it clear you went into the house, stole the keys with the handbag, and then stole the cars - the both of you did.
7	You have admitted by your plea that you knew or were reckless as to the fact that the owners were asleep in the house.  The crime you have pleaded guilty to is aggravated burglary with its long maximum term of 25 years' imprisonment.  I will refer shortly to a recent decision of the Court of Appeal emphasising the seriousness of breaking into a home while the occupants are present and asleep.
8	With one of the stolen cars from that crime, you then went the next day, 2 May 2023, to a house in Pepperdine Way, Highton.  You and your 
co-accused parked the stolen car in the driveway, facing out.  You then broke into the house.  
9	Fortunately, no one was home, but the owner, her daughter and grandchildren came home and drove into their driveway.  
10	You men exited the house with stolen items and got into the stolen car.  You men then proceeded to ram the victim's car three times, no doubt causing utter terror for the children and adult victims.  You were able to force the victim's car back and your vehicle then drove off at speed over the nature strip.  The house had been ransacked, which leaves a dreadful feeling and enduring image for all those who have experienced burglaries of this kind.
11	I pause to note that those of us in the courts have to be careful that we do not become immune, as it were, to the awful impact of house burglaries, because the courts, especially the overworked Magistrate's Court, deal with so many home burglaries.  Each victim of a house burglary has their sense of safety, and the sanctity of their home violated.  Many victims are significantly adversely impacted.  It often takes a long time to get over the impact, if that occurs at all.  
12	The Sentencing Act requires that I take into account the impact of crimes on the victims which can be explicitly stated by the victims, or I can draw, or a sentencing Judge can draw reasonable inferences, such as those I have articulated just now.
13	All that said, I make it clear that I do not punish you for other crimes that were not charged and you have not pleaded guilty to.  Rather I assess the gravity of this burglary of Pepperdine Way by reference to all the circumstances, which included that the victims saw you as you made your escape, and experienced the desperate efforts that you and the others undertook to escape.
14	One other aspect of this burglary was that you stole and used a credit card at a convenience store at a later point.  
15	More concerningly, you stole the key to another car.  The next day you told your co-accused you were going back to the same property to use the key to steal that car.  Thus, you intended to subject the already traumatised victims to further crimes.  As it turned out again, your conduct was frightening.  
16	The male owner was in his house when he saw you and a co-accused getting into his car in order to steal it.  He ran outside to try and prevent this but you drove off as he was doing this, causing him to fall to the ground.  By good fortune alone he was not injured.  You also stole another car in Highton but it was recovered only a short distance away from the property from which it was stolen.
17	In the evening of 3 May another victim parked her car in her driveway.  Her partner's car was also in the driveway.  The next day both cars were gone, stolen by you and no doubt a co-accused.  One of the cars was located on the street outside your house.  
18	A house owner near where these cars were stolen had his shed and car broken into, a hedge trimmer was stolen from the premises and found at your home at a later date.
19	On 3 May 2023 homeowners in Newtown were awoken by a security app on their phone.  It revealed that you and a co-accused were in their back yard, but at the time you were then frightened off by the family dog.  You dropped your phone as you escaped.
20	In and around the address was found: the car that was stolen from the man who fell trying to stop you taking his car, as well as another stolen car.  Out of the seven cars stolen, six were recovered.
21	On your arrest you were found with methylamphetamines, MDMA and Xanax.  You have been on remand since your arrest, that is since early May; 498 days are declarable as pre-sentence detention pursuant to s 18 of the Sentencing Act 1991.  A two months' sentence was imposed by a magistrate in the middle of 2024 for breaching a community corrections order and other matters.  I take that into account generally that you have been in custody since your arrest in early May.
22	You had negotiated pleas of guilty before instructing new solicitors that you wished to contest the aggravated burglary charge.  The issues surrounding that charge resolved in recent times.  Your sentence will be or is less than it otherwise would have been because you have pleaded guilty.  There has been time since the matter resolved, but as I have noted, you have very much used that time, the recent month, to your advantage while on remand.
23	As I have already noted, these crimes amount to serious offending.  Our community has no tolerance for thefts of valuable property such as cars, just for the pleasure and convenience of offenders, to enable them to get around, mostly to commit other crimes.  As stated, breaking into family homes leaves a mark on victims and it also diminishes the whole community's sense of safety.  Young offenders, especially recidivist young offenders such as you are, cannot expect that these sorts of crimes will be explained away, as it were, because you have become drug addicted.
24	While your personal circumstances are important, especially your young age, and I will turn to all matters personal to you shortly.  
25	What remains of primary importance is that the courts are seen to properly respond to the community's intolerance of home invasions and thefts of their valuable property.  As I said, the Court of Appeal in Ristic just last month spoke of the seriousness of aggravated burglaries where the intent was to steal; that is going into a family home while the family slept and stealing their items, in that case unknown to them.
26	What the Court of Appeal indicated there was that sentences of at least three years for such crimes are usually warranted, though each case has unique circumstances.
27	As to your personal circumstances, you are, as I have mentioned, a young man now 22 and you were 21 at the time of this offending.  Despite your young age you have sadly accumulated a very long and concerning criminal history.  
28	Your first appearance in the Children's Court was shortly after you turned 16 in 2018.  There were two further Children's Court appearances in 2018 however, the number and the seriousness of your crimes elevated.  Most concerningly, at this early time was that you commenced to commit the serious crime of aggravated burglary and multiple thefts of cars.
29	You were placed on Children's Court's rehabilitative and supportive orders at first, but you breached those.  
30	On 17 July 2019, that was your sixth appearance it seems to me in the Children's Court, you were sentenced to a Youth Justice Centre period of detention for nine months.  The Children's Court magistrate dealt with you for eight instances of aggravated burglary and multiple thefts.  
31	In the early part of 2020, you were again sentenced to a short term of detention in the Youth Justice Centre for offences of violence.  
32	By July 2020 you were before the adult courts, again for aggravated burglary and multiple theft of cars and other dishonesty offences.  You were sentenced to adult gaol for 57 days, which was the time that you had been held on remand.  You were further sentenced to a community corrections order which you breached.
33	In May 2021 you were sentenced to 112 days' of imprisonment, being the time that you had served on remand and then placed on another community corrections order for multiple car thefts and again aggravated burglary.
34	The community corrections order was breached and on 8 December 2022 it was varied.  You were subject to that community corrections order when you committed these crimes.  That is an aggravating circumstance.
35	You are not to be repunished for past crimes, many committed when you were a child.  However, you have been before courts on 11 separate occasions, and it seems to me on each occasion or each time the sentence imposed sought to help you to rehabilitate and to stay out of custody.  At your young age, reclaiming you is not abandoned, far from it, but it is clear you have had many chances.  In those circumstances, the emphasise moves from rehabilitation to the punitive sentencing purposes of deterrence to you and to others, protection of the community and punishment.
36	Your counsel, in his carefully prepared and comprehensive plea, acknowledged as much, that there is a need for deterrence to you and protection of the community.  Also your prior history reveals a bewildering number of aggravated burglaries and car thefts.  There are just over 19 aggravated burglaries or attempted aggravated burglaries and a similar number, if not more, for the car thefts.  Your propensity to break into houses when people are at home, and your propensity to steal valuable cars means deterrence to you and protection of the community from you become very weighty matters.
37	Your failure to take up many opportunities to rehabilitate while on court orders means my confidence in your capacity to reform is lowered.  There is more to be said about your personal circumstances than just your troubling prior history.  
38	Your lawyers had you examined by two different medicolegal psychologists, Ms Kennedy in November 2022 and Ms Bovenkerk in November 2023.  
39	Your parents separated when you were about two or three.  Both parents re-partnered and you have a large number of step and half-siblings.  You were raised in your early years in your father's household which appeared stable.  You enjoyed a good relationship with your father and stepmother though they were strict.
40	At age 14-15 you moved to your mother's household against your father's wishes.  This had a negative effect on your relationship with your father for some years and a negative effect on you.  It seems also your mother had difficulties with her own drug use and the setting of rules.
41	Your move to your mother's set in train a cycle of drug use or increased drug use, and offending with other drug users, that is that saw you in the Children's Court and then the adult courts, so that you were offending, using drugs, being arrested, going to court hearings, and then starting the cycle rapidly again.  I will speak of a break in your offending shortly.
42	You attended local schools in Geelong but you struggled behaviourally, socially and academically.  It seems you were diagnosed with ADHD as a child and medicated, this does not have any ongoing implications on your personality or behaviour.
43	You attended school to Year 10 in Geelong before engaging in - although you have engaged in further education in Youth Justice Centre and when on Youth Parole.  Sadly, you have never had any employment.  
44	You formed a relationship in your late teens.  In 2021 a child was born to you and your then partner.  Your child means a great deal to you.  Your counsel made insightful submissions about this aspect of your life and I will return to this shortly.
45	I need first to put these and other matters in context, that is in the context of your drug use.  In the social groups you were mixing with at aged about 15 or 16, you took up heavy drug use.  You have not participated in any sustained drug rehabilitation.  Methylamphetamine is the drug that causes you the most difficulties.
46	You indicated at one point that drug rehabilitation was not for you, that is indicated to one of the medicolegal psychologists.  It seems that until recently you were of the view that with forced abstinence of being in prison, you will on release just not resume drug use.  You now have a less naïve attitude following engagement with the dedicated workers from the Wathaurong Cooperative.
47	Your counsel highlighted that your only significant period of not being before the courts was when your child was born.  You were at that time it seems in a stable, or the relationship was stable and you had a stable way of life.  You were determined, it seems, that it remain that way, but things did not work out.  Your relationship became more difficult.  You took up drug use again, as did your partner.  You resumed offending.  On your arrest for these matters your contact with your partner and most importantly with your child ended.  Your child is in the care of a grandparent following orders made by the Children's Court.  
48	You sought and gained video contact from the prison, though this has fallen away of late, which concerns you.  The point to be understood is that you are motivated to resume a relationship with your child and to properly parent your child.  You have shown in the past a capacity in this regard.  It seems, as your counsel submitted, that this aspect of your life is what gives you hope and a more mature commitment to reform.  This aspect of your personal circumstances is a matter that I have, after hearing your plea, given more weight, favouring rehabilitative sentencing purposes.
49	Both psychologists considered you did not have any diagnosed mental illness.  Both considered in a generalised way your childhood was difficult, with early parental separation and then moving from one parental household to the other, which was less stable, during an important period of your adolescence and you moved in with your mother who had some drug use problems.  All this played out in the context of you having childhood ADHD.  These aspects of your upbringing have no doubt made you more prone to impulsive behaviours.  
50	Both psychologists wrote that you raised with them that your father had a First Nations or Indigenous heritage.  Some of what was written by the psychologists indicated uncertainty or a lack of engagement with respect to your Indigenous heritage.  This contrasts with the recent significant involvement you have had with the local Wathaurong workers.  
51	I have read the positive letters from Ms Matheson, the Aboriginal youth justice worker dated 19 September 2024.  The letter sets out the scope of assistance that has been, and can continue to be, provided to you in custody.  
52	A letter from Mr Mark Thompson, the senior men's family violence case worker dated 18 September 2024, also sets out the contact that has been established with you and the referrals that have been made, including with respect to mental health and drug problems.  
53	Mr Drummond is the Wathaurong's drug counsellor who has commenced working with you.  It is early days, but Mr Drummond expressed some confidence.  You also are engaged in parenting programs to assist you with your young child.  These are all positive developments.  
54	I commend those at Wathaurong who are making such an effort to assist a young man such as you.  It has had the effect of waking you up to the value and the possibility of rehabilitating, reuniting with your child, and not wasting your life or the very important years ahead of you, not wasting those years in prison.
55	I was today provided a most impressive list or bundle of certificates verifying the very large number of vocational and rehabilitative programs you have undertaken while on remand.  Your efforts are considerable and elevate my confidence in your prospects for the future.  All of this is very much to your credit.
56	As I have mentioned more than once, a key consideration in sentencing is your young age.  The principles governing sentencing young offenders are well established but warrant being set out in your case.  This is because it remains important to endeavour to facilitate your rehabilitation given you are still in your early 20s.  What also looms is that the seriousness of your offending means your rehabilitation cannot be the only consideration.  
57	In the decision of Azzopardi v The Queen, Justice Redlich made clear all the issues, which involved seeking to balance the punitive sentencing purposes with rehabilitation.  His Honour said the following regarding sentencing of young offenders, setting out the following principles:
Firstly, young offenders being immature are therefore 'more prone to ill-considered or rash decisions'.  They 'may lack the degree of insight, judgment and self-control that is possessed by an adult'.  They may not fully appreciate the nature, seriousness and consequences of their criminal conduct. 
Secondly, courts 'recognize the potential for young offenders to be redeemed and rehabilitated'.  This potential exists because young offenders are typically still in a stage of mental and emotional development and may be more open to influences designed to positively change their behaviour than adults who have established patterns of anti-social behaviour. 
Thirdly, courts sentencing young offenders are cognizant that the effect of incarceration in an adult prison on a young offender will more likely impair, rather than improve, the offender's prospects of successful rehabilitation.
58	His Honour Justice Redlich then referred to the well-known judgment of Justice Batt in R v Mills. However, a feature of that decision, R v Mills, was that the application of the principles giving primacy to rehabilitation were in a context where the young offender was a first-time offender.  You are not a 
first-time offender, but one who has been given chances on rehabilitative corrections orders that you have breached, and you have many prior serious offences.
59	His Honour Justice Redlich went on in Azzopardi to make clear that the focus on rehabilitation in sentencing of young offenders must in certain circumstances yield to other more punitive sentencing purposes, principally where the seriousness of the offending is elevated.  His Honour referred to a number of important authorities that limited the primacy of youth and rehabilitation in sentencing, citing at length from what was said by Justice Batt again in DPP v Lawrence.  
60	I will not refer to all of that at this point but what is clear is that a number of times it has been said and reinforced in Azzopardi, that while youth and rehabilitation are important, there are circumstances where they must be subjugated to other considerations or take a back seat to them.  The importance is to find the balance.
61	Your case is one where the seriousness of the offending is such that your rehabilitation, because of your youth, must yield to the other sentencing purposes of denunciation, deterrence generally and specific to you, and protection of the community.
62	It was not put that other than your plea of guilty, that there is any evidence of remorse or much by way of insight or victim empathy.  However, you do express your regret and recognise your stupidity in being involved in these offences.  
63	Your counsel's submission was that along with your period of remand, a further onerous community corrections order could adequately meet all sentencing purposes.  As I have noted, you have been the subject of community corrections order and similar Children's Court orders in the past, in fact you were on one at the time of this offending and you have failed in completing or taking up the opportunities offered by a community corrections order.
64	The prosecution submitted the only appropriate sentence was one involving a head sentence and a non-parole period, though the prosecutor recognised the importance of your youth and reclaiming you with supervision in the community.
65	I acknowledge that a community corrections order can facilitate rehabilitation and simultaneously punish and deter.  However, as the majority in the DPP v Reynolds made clear, there is a limit to how punitive a community corrections order can be.  Given the seriousness and the repetitive offending involved here, in my view another community corrections order in addition to the time on remand cannot adequately express the need for deterrence to you and others, it cannot adequately express the need for protection of the community from you, given your past, and in particular, your recent failures on the community corrections order.  And a combined sentence cannot adequately punish you for what you did to the many victims.  Also, the effect of your crimes on the community generally warrants punishment.  
66	It is always a grave step to punish a young person by imposing a sentence involving years of imprisonment and I do not impose such a sentence without having given anxious consideration and exploring every alternative option.  I have revisited these issues following your counsel's comprehensive plea.  The certainty of release, as he put it, allowing for there to be planning for your release, is attractive, but in the end the sentence must be one in my view involving a head sentence and a non-parole period.
67	Here your rehabilitation is best facilitated by allowing for a period of potential parole.  The period that I have fixed is longer because of what I have seen as to your efforts in recent times in prison, in particular with the involvement of the Wathaurong to set up rehabilitation.  
68	Whether and when you are released on parole is a decision for others, not the courts, but I do emphasise that on release you will need significant support and supervision.  Thus, I urge you to be released on parole to allow for this important supervision to occur as you reintegrate into the community with the support and the housing of your mother.  Hopefully this time, on this occasion, you will be better able and more committed to staying crime free.  If you do not, you are just going to do a life sentence by instalments.  A couple of years here, then it will become five years, then longer.  It has got to stop.
69	Your crimes were rapid fire over a few days, one leading to or connecting to another.  I have revisited the sentences that I contemplated and adjusted those sentences and the orders for cumulation and the non-parole period, so as to ensure that I have adhered to the principles of totality.
70	Doing the best I can I impose the following sentences which I will go over again with counsel as to the mathematics.
71	Charge 1, theft of the car, you are sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment.
72	Charge 2, theft of the car, 12 months' imprisonment.
73	Charge 3, aggravated burglary, two years and four months' imprisonment.  That is the base sentence.
74	Charge 4, theft of the car, 12 months.
75	Charge 5, burglary, two years' imprisonment.
76	Charge 6, theft of the car keys, three months' imprisonment.
77	Charge 7, theft of the credit card, one month imprisonment.
78	Charge 8, the use of the credit card, obtaining a financial advantage by deception, one month imprisonment.
79	Charge 9, theft of the car that did not move far, nine months' imprisonment.
80	Charge 10, theft of the car from Pepperdine Way, 18 months' imprisonment.
81	Charge 11, theft of a car, 12 months' imprisonment.
82	Charge 12, theft of a car, 12 months' imprisonment.
83	Charge 13, handling stolen goods, one month imprisonment.
84	Charge 14, 15 and 16, possession of drugs of dependence, you are convicted and fined a total of $100.
85	For the summary charge of trespass, you are sentenced to one month imprisonment.
86	I order that one month of Charge 1, one month of Charge 2, one month of Charge 4, 12 months of Charge 5, one month of Charge 9, six months of Charge 10, one month of Charge 11, one month of Charge 12 are cumulative upon each other and upon the base sentence, which 28 months, Charge 3.  This gives a total effective sentence of 52 months, four years and four months.  I fix a non-parole period of two years.
87	You have already served 498 days of the sentence that I have just imposed.  I will ensure that that figure having been reckoned, I will ensure the declaration is entered into the records of the court so the prison authorities are left in no doubt you have served 498 days of the sentence I have just imposed.
88	Had you pleaded not guilty to these offences and been found guilty of them, I would have imposed a sentence of six years with a non-parole period of four years.
89	Your licence has to be affected, and it seems to me that rather than impose a period of time that starts when you are released, given it is uncertain, I will cancel your licence and disqualify you from driving for a period of two years.
90	I will make orders for restitution and there is some disposal orders which I will make as well.
91	Are there any other orders?
92	MR VUU:  No, Your Honour.
93	HIS HONOUR:  Thank you.  I'll just check with my staff.  Yes, thank you.  
94	Mr Thomson, you will have to go with the authorities.   Your counsel will come down, I hope be able to see you before you go, so I won't delay him or you, so if you would just head with the prison authorities now.
95	Can I thank counsel for the considerable assistance and commend you, 
Mr Vuu, on a very good plea in a difficult set of circumstances.
96	MR VUU:  May the court please.
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