CDPP v Miller [2025] VCC 1828

1. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years' imprisonment.
2. The facts of your offending are set out in the Summary of Prosecution Opening dated 15 May 2025, and these were not in dispute.

1. On 28 September 2021 you registered for an Australian Business Number (ABN) in your own name with the main business activity listed as 'Hairdressing and Beauty Services'. You were granted an ABN and on 3 November 2021, it was registered for Goods and Services Tax (GST). This meant you were required to report GST to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) monthly.
2. Between 15 December 2021 and 11 March 2022, you lodged five Business Activity Statements (BAS) with the ATO seeking to claim a refund, you claimed your business had incurred on purchases related to the business. In each BAS you asserted that you were operating a business, that the business had incurred or paid GST on purchases, and that you were entitled to GST refunds. Each BAS was false as you were not running a business or incurring GST through purchases. As a result, $113,430 in GST refunds were paid into your bank account to which you were not entitled.

1. Between 20 April and 10 June 2022, you lodged four BAS (one was an amended BAS) with the ATO seeking a refund of GST you falsely claimed your business had incurred on business related purchases. The claims made in each BAS were rejected by the ATO and no refunds were paid to you. Accordingly, you did not obtain a financial advantage from the lodgements but attempted to obtain $64,480 in refunds**.**

1. On 17 October 2022, you lodged a claim in your name for an Australian Government Disaster Relief Payment (AGDRP) with Services Australia. You stated that your property in Maribyrnong, Victoria, had been damaged on 13 October 2022 in the Victorian floods of October 2022. The claim was false because you did not reside in Maribyrnong at the time of the flooding event.
2. The claim was granted and on 17 October you were paid $1,000 into your bank account.

1. Between 18 October and 3 November 2022, you lodged three claims for an AGDRP. These claims respectively stated that you had property in Launceston, Tasmania and Blacktown, New South Wales that had suffered damage in floods.
2. Each of these claims were false, as you were not residing in Launceston or Blacktown at the time of the flooding events. The claims were rejected by Services Australia, and you received no payments into your bank accounts. Accordingly, you attempted to obtain $3,800.

1. Between 10 May 2022 and 3 August 2022 the ATO wrote to you to audit the BAS the subject of the charges. You did not provide any response to the audit. On 30 June 2022, your ABN was cancelled. Your offending was detected after conversations were located on the phone of your then partner that showed you were involved in an ATO scam.
2. On 29 January 2024, you participated in a Record of Interview and made full admissions including that:

a) You obtained a large amount of money that you did not earn. > > b) You were not working at the time of the offending. > > c) You are not a qualified hairdresser or qualified in beauty services. > > d) You never had $2.2 million to spend on a business. > > e) You invented a fake business to create an ABN > > f) You agreed that the rightful owner of the money would be the Australian Government and the taxpayers. > > g) You said you have never been involved in a flood. > > h) You were not using drugs and were 'to an extent' sober at the time of your offending.

3. You told Ms Pitts, psychologist, that you had been told about people who had successfully obtained a financial advantage via the ATO by deception, and you gave your MyGov and tax information to an individual who you said was paid to commit fraudulent activity on behalf of others. The individual, once in possession of your information initially filed false statements on your behalf. You said the person then advised you how to continue filing false statements, including how to apply for an ABN and register for GST. The person also reportedly advised you how to 'input the numbers' into BAS to be able to receive tax refunds fraudulently.[1]
4. In relation to the AGDRP claims, you stated that you were informed of the potential to make false claims and receive payment by your acquaintances. You reportedly used a template provided by an acquaintance to input false answers in the Services Australia application for disaster relief payments.

1. The principles relevant to sentencing for taxation fraud such as that involving dishonestly obtaining GST refunds or government payments, are well established and include:[2]

(i) Ordinarily imprisonment, with time to be served, will be the only sentencing option for serious tax fraud in the absence of powerful mitigating factors.

(ii) General deterrence is a particularly significant given the need to protect the revenue. Because the system is based on trust, it is open to abuse. Accordingly, when abuse is discovered, sentences must be salutary.

(iii) Where general deterrence is the primary sentencing consideration, personal mitigatory factors such as prior good character, age, and prospects of rehabilitation must therefore be given less weight than might otherwise be given.[3]

(iv) Denunciation and punishment are also important sentencing considerations.[4]

(v) Tax evasion or government fraud is not a victimless crime. It affects the whole of the community and it has a flow on effect to the honest taxpayer and in the ability of the government to provide for the community.[5]

(vi) Offending involving government revenue is often easy to commit, difficult, time consuming and expensive to detect and prosecute and if undetected can produce significant rewards.[6]

(vii) The amount of money involved in the offending is a significant consideration in assessing the seriousness of the offending and the level of criminality involved as this is '...an indication of the extent to which an offender is prepared to be dishonest and to flout the law and to advance whatever are his or her own purposes'[7]

(viii) Taxation fraud is an especially serious matter where it involves the obtaining of so called 'refunds' of substantial sums of money, which were never due to the offender in the first place.[8]

1. I have also had regard to the matters applicable in sentencing for Commonwealth offences. Section 17A of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth (the Act) provides that a sentence of imprisonment must only be imposed if the court is satisfied that 'no other sentence is appropriate in all the circumstances of the case'. Section 16A(1) of the Act provides a court must impose a sentence or an order that is of an appropriate severity in all the circumstances of the offending and s16A(2) sets out a non-exhaustive list of factors that must be taken into account as far as these are relevant and known to the Court. I have had regard to the following factors set out in s16A(2):

16A(2)(a) Nature and circumstances of the offence

1. Yours was serious offending. The maximum penalty for each charge is 10 years' imprisonment. You obtained $113,430 in refunds and attempted to obtain a further $64,480 in your offending against the ATO. These are not insignificant sums. In your BAS claims, you represented your business was legitimate with associated GST activity. The GST refunds you claimed would equate to approximately $2,248,180 in business expenditures between November 2021 and June 2022, yet you admitted you never conducted any business and knew you were not entitled to the refunds claimed.
2. You also committed a separate fraud against a different government body by seeking four disaster relief payments. You received one payment in the amount of $1,000 and attempted to obtain a further three claims amounting to a total of $3,800.
3. Charges 1, 2 and 4 are 'rolled up' charges encompassing separate acts of dishonesty. Charge 1 involved five separate instances of you dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception. Charge 2 covers four separate attempts to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception. Charge 4 involves three separate claims made by you attempting to obtain AGDRP payments. Because rolled-up charges reflect more than one instance of offending, each capable of constituting a separate offence, the criminality involved in the charge is greater than with a charge involving only one episode of criminal conduct.[9]

1. Your offending was not unplanned, or unintentional, was not isolated, sporadic or impulsive. You lodged nine separate BAS over a period of 11 months and three AGDRP claims over a two-week period. You needed to complete each false BAS by providing specific details of your purported business purchases, the GST payable on these and the refund sought. Each false AGDRP claim also required you to input false details.
2. I do however accept your counsel's submission that your offending was unsophisticated and easily traceable, as you used your own name to obtain an ABN and seek the AGDR payments.
3. You were motivated to engage in the offending for financial gain or reward which increases the objective seriousness of your offending.[10] Transactions in your bank statements show that you spent some of the money you obtained on shopping and transactions described as 'tattoos or piercing', 'Surfers Paradise', and a $15,000 payment described as 'car'. Your bank statements also showed transactions for takeaway foods and transfers to other accounts. During the period you received the ATO payments you were also receiving Centrelink benefits into your account along with transfers from other people.
4. You said that you offended because you were experiencing financial difficulties and needed to obtain money 'to survive' as you were unemployed at the time of the offences receiving only Centrelink benefits and had your two children living with you on a full-time basis in a private rental property. You admitted however that you were using methamphetamine daily, the partner you were living with at the time would use what money you did have to buy illicit substances, and you felt pressured by your partner and an ex-partner to commit the offending. As well as your drug habit, you and your former partner were also engaging in regular gambling online and at poker machine venues. You told Ms Pitts that you were gambling anywhere between $30 and $200 a day. On balance, I do not accept that you offended solely because of need or desperation.
5. You have not repaid any of the funds you fraudulently obtained, and it is unlikely the full amount will ever be repaid unless your current circumstances change.

1. You pleaded guilty to the charge at the first reasonable opportunity. Your plea warrants a clear reduction in sentence to reflect its utilitarian value in saving the community the time and expense of a trial and witnesses from having to give evidence, and to reflect its demonstration of acceptance of responsibility, willingness to facilitate the course of justice and remorse.

1. Whilst the prosecution case against you was strong, I nevertheless give weight to the fact that you made significant admissions to committing the offences in your record of interview.

1. I have also had regard to the need to deter you personally from further offending of this type, and I have also factored in the need to ensure you are adequately punished for your offending.

1. As noted above, general deterrence is a primary sentencing consideration for offending of this nature.

16A(2)(m) Character, antecedents, age, means and physical or mental condition

1. You are 26 years old and were aged between 22 and 23 at the time of your offending.
2. You were born in Ferntree Gully and are an only child although you have an older half-brother from your mother, and one older half-sister from your father. You describe your early childhood as positive, until your parents separated when you were nine and the environment was hostile and tense with some verbal conflicts, although you did not witness any physical violence. Your father was a chronic cannabis user although you told Ms Pitts that you never witnessed him using. Your mother did not use any illicit substances.
3. Your mother re-partnered in 2010 with your stepfather, who you describe as a supportive influence. You had a close relationship with your mother until you were 13 and became what you described as a 'rebellious teenager', causing conflict with your mother. You would sneak out of your house at night, meet up with friends, consume alcohol and engage in underage sexual relations with men you met online.
4. You moved out of home with your then partner when you were 18 and pregnant with your second child. You lived in private rentals until about two years ago, when you moved into a caravan on your mother's property. As a result of your substance use and not returning home, your mother said you were no longer welcome to live in the caravan, so you have been homeless for the last 12-18 months. During this period, you have stayed with friends, slept in your car or paid for hotel rooms.
5. You attended Knox Park Primary School from Prep to Grade 6 and then attended high school in Ferntree Gully from Years 7 to 9. You completed Year 10 at Croydon Community School and completed Years 11 and 12 via the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL) pathway. You found learning easy and were identified as advanced in your learning group at secondary school and placed in an advanced learning pathway which accelerated students through three years of education at a faster rate. You told Ms Pitts that you experienced bullying at school and had difficulties making friends.
6. You were first employed when you were 14 and you worked in a chemist mostly doing deliveries by pushbike. You then worked at McDonald's for 3-15 months but stopped to give birth to your first child. You next worked casually in a retail store for a few months over the Christmas period when you were 17. At 18 you started a Certificate IV in Community Services at Wantirna Swinburne University and obtained work as a swimming instructor for two years but stopped as the hours were difficult as you were a single mother of an infant. You ultimately did not complete the Certificate. You obtained work at a brothel in 2022, but you did not work there for more than two months, as you were not comfortable engaging in sex work.
7. You have been unemployed since 2022, and you receive Centrelink payments, but you often also rely on friends for additional income or food items as you struggle financially. You told Ms Pitts that you do not have current plans to recommence employment or further study as your primary focus is to regain custody of your children.
8. You had your first serious relationship at 15 and your first child was born from this relationship when you were 16. Your relationship was positive but ceased when your partner started using drugs. Your son is now 10 and your former partner has not been involved in your son's life. You had two other relationships when you were pregnant with your first child. One ended after a few months and the other lasted for four years. During this latter relationship you gave birth to your second child when you were 18. Your second child is now aged seven.
9. Whilst this relationship was initially positive, after the birth of your child, your partner became physically, verbally, financially and emotionally abusive. You told Ms Pitts that you were physically assaulted around twice a week. Your partner also had access to your finances and would withdraw money to buy illicit substances. He introduced you to illicit substances.
10. You reported that you ended this relationship after a domestic violence incident that was witnessed by your children who were highly distressed. The police attended in response to this incident and there is a current Family Violence Intervention Order (FVIO) in place with you as the protected party.
11. You report ongoing conflict with this former partner, mostly regarding the custody of your children. Your former partner does not currently have any visitation rights to the children, after allegations that the children were exposed to physical abuse when in his care.
12. You had your next serious relationship at the age of 22 which lasted for two years. Both you and this partner used illicit substances. You reported that this partner 'manipulated' you to commence sex work to pay for your drug habits. You fell pregnant with your third child, but report that you were 'forced' to have an abortion by your former partner which caused you great emotional distress and led you to engage in increased substance use. You ended this relationship when child protection authorities told you that you would not regain custody of your children while you were in the relationship. You then left home and returned to live with your mother, and your former partner harassed you for some time with constant messaging and letters.
13. You are now single and are not seeking another relationship. You are focused on regaining custody of your children, who you gave custody of to your mother in 2022 because you felt mentally unstable after the termination. The children were returned to your care in August 2022 but then removed after a report was made regarding your substance use. The children were then formally placed in your mother's custody in 2024. You may visit your children at any time, permitted by your mother and you currently visit them around once a week, due to living some distance away from them and not having a driver's licence. You describe your relationship with your children as fractured due to you being a largely absent parent.
14. You see your mother once or twice a week, but she has expressed concern about your offending and is critical of your lifestyle and associated criminality. You have not seen your father since 2023. You report that you have few friends and are socially isolated as the only people you spend time with are involved in illicit substance use.
15. You were first psychologically assessed by Ms Pitts in July 2025, but the assessment could not be completed as you did not attend a further appointment that was scheduled to complete the assessment. You subsequently attended for the assessment to be completed, and Ms Pitts provided a supplementary report dated 10 September 2025. In that report, Ms Pitts noted that at your attendance on 8 September you reported that you were no closer to gaining custody of your children and you have been advised that child protection authorities were likely to seek an order that your children remain in your mother's custody on an indefinite basis. You told Ms Pitts that you continue to associate with peers who use drugs.

1. You reported that you were first diagnosed with depression and anxiety when you were 13 and admitted to the Eastern Health Hospital Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services in November 2012. Before this admission you said you were experiencing severe bullying at school, causing you to engage in self-harm behaviour, cutting your arms and legs daily. Your mother took you to the hospital for treatment and you were prescribed an antidepressant which you took for 1-2 years. You stopped taking this medication when you fell pregnant with your first child at 15. You report having been prescribed antidepressants intermittently since then, but you have largely been non-compliant with taking these and you are not presently prescribed any medication. You underwent counselling for about a year after your admission in 2012.
2. You described your mood as 'average' and you believe the depression you experienced when you were 13 never resolved but fluctuated in its intensity and more recently your mental health had deteriorated because your criminal matters and Family Court proceedings were causing you significant anxiety. You reported symptoms of severe mood disturbance, characterised by depressive and

anxiety-related symptoms. You told Ms Pitts at the assessment that you continue to use drugs to avoid negative feelings. 3. At the time of the offending you report that your mental health was poor, and you were suffering from severe depression. You said you were struggling with trying to separate from a relationship involving family violence and you were in another relationship that was controlling and abusive. You said you would like to engage with a psychologist but have been unable to source an affordable practice without lengthy waiting lists and you cannot afford to see a private psychologist. 4. Ms Pitts opined that your history of exposure to parental rejection and severe bullying in your developmental years and your later exposure to significant family violence have led to you developing a complex psychiatric profile with provisional diagnoses of Borderline Personality Disorder ('BPD') and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder along with Persistent Depressive and Anxiety Disorder and Generalised Anxiety Disorder which have been self-medicated through illegal drugs resulting in Substance Use Disorders. Ms Pitts wrote that your present severe depressive symptoms appear related to situational factors such as homelessness and ongoing drug use, Family Court matters and these criminal proceedings. 5. Your counsel relied on limbs 1, 5 and 6 of Verdins arguing that your mental health diagnoses reduced your moral culpability for your offending and meant that at the time of sentencing, imprisonment would weigh more heavily on you than another prisoner and your mental health would likely deteriorate if you were imprisoned. 6. Dealing with limbs 5 and 6 first, Ms Pitts opined that these were enlivened in your case as the severity of your mood disturbance affects your ability to regulate your emotions and the volatile nature of a custodial environment '...can cause

re-traumatisation in an individual who has untreated trauma symptoms'. The prosecution accepted and I agree that limb 5 is enlivened in your case and your inability to regulate your emotions could affect how you behave in custody vis a vis other prisoners and custody officials. 7. The prosecution argued however that there was no basis to moderate your sentence to reflect any deterioration of your mental health in custody as there was no evidence of a risk of 'serious deterioration' of your mental health with Ms Pitts concluding only that your mental health 'may' deteriorate further. In my view, there is an evidentiary basis to allow some mitigation of sentence based on Ms Pitt's report especially as she refers to the risk that your underlying traumas may surface in the prison environment, which seems to me to be a very real risk. 8. In terms of reliance on Verdins limb 1, your counsel relied on several parts of Ms Pitts report to support the existence of a causal or realistic connection between your mental health issues and your offending. He relied on paragraph 104, where Ms Pitts said that:

[104] [your] psychopathology and limited coping milieu have undermined her ability to think clearly, respond calmly and exercise appropriate judgment, thereby contributing to her substance use disorders. Further...depression and anxiety can alter cognition and behaviour by impairing impulse control and decision-making and impair an individual's ability to consider alternative strategies and behaviours and these features are considered to have further contributed to [your] offending behaviour.

Substance use also leads to reduced self-inhibition and behavioural self-control which can manifest as impulsive, reckless, disinhibited behaviour,

1. At paragraph [105] Ms Pitts stated that your vulnerabilities and psychosocial circumstances appear to have contributed to your offending. You reported to her that at that time, you were involved in intimate partner relationships that featured significant abuse and the use of coercion to offend and this and your lack of employment appears to have resulted in you offending to provide financially for yourself and others.
2. At paragraph [110] Ms Pitts opined that your inability to obtain money through legitimate means amidst some mood disturbance and personality vulnerabilities, you sought illegal ways which you used to provide essentials to family members as well as to buy drugs and gamble. At paragraph [111] Ms Pitts concluded that you do not have an anti-social or pro-offending disposition and your offending followed '...significant relationship issues, psychosocial difficulties and substance use whilst [you] presented with underlying personality disturbance, mental health challenges and impaired functioning'.
3. Your counsel accepted that your drug use contributed to your offending and that it occurred in the context of coercive relationships but maintained reliance on limb 1 to reduce your moral culpability. The prosecution submitted that the evidence did not establish a realistic connection between your mental health conditions and your offending, rather it was financially motivated, and your main diagnoses were only provisional.
4. In my view, Ms Pitts offers several factors that contributed in combination to your offending. These are depression and anxiety, underlying personality disturbance and mental health challenges, substance use disorder, psychosocial circumstances including involvement in abusive and coercive relationships, and your lack of employment and money meant you sought illegal ways to provide essentials to family members as well as to buy drugs and gamble.
5. She also opined that it appears that you have turned to illicit substances as a form of self-medication for unaddressed mood distances and other trauma-related symptoms.
6. I have considered the report carefully and consider that the underlying reason for your offending was your substance abuse and your need to obtain money to provide for your children and to buy drugs. I do not think a causal or realistic connection between your underlying mental health issues and your offending is available based on the report. Of course, drug use and mental health issues are notoriously difficult to disentangle, and it seems your mental health issues caused you to start using drugs, but they were not causally connected to your offending - your drug use and desire for money were.
7. You yourself told Ms Pitts that when you were offending you were unemployed and using methamphetamine and GHB daily and you were financially strained as you then had the care of your children and needed money. Further, Ms Pitts wrote that during your assessment you presented with some insight and judgment and identified behaviours that precipitated your offending such as unemployment, financial difficulties and substance use. Whilst I do not consider Verdins limb 1 is enlivened I do give weight to your underlying mental health issues as providing context for how you became involved in using drugs in the first place and to demonstrate the various psychological stressors that were present at the time you offended.
8. Similarly, I give weight to your personal background and upbringing that, whilst not rising to the degree of hardship that would attract Bugmy considerations, is still a factor of relevance in contextualising your offending and reflecting the fact that your life has not been easy.

1. You have a long substance abuse history, using alcohol, methamphetamine, GHB, cocaine, cannabis and benzodiazepines for many years. You first consumed alcohol to intoxication when you were 12 or 13. You report that you have not consumed alcohol in the last 12 months.
2. You first tried methamphetamine when you were 21 or 22 which was provided by a former partner. Your use escalated to daily use after the termination of your third child in 2022 and you continued using up to 1.5 grams daily from May 2022 until July 2025. You told Ms Pitts that the drug 'made [her] feel normal' and that if you did not use methamphetamine, you could not undertake daily tasks.
3. You first tried GHB in 2023 when attempting to withdraw from methamphetamine use. After this you used GHB daily. You told Ms Pitts that you consumed 50 to 100 mils of GHB daily over the last 12 months. You believe that if you do not consume GHB when you wake up you are 'unable to function'. You also have a significant prescription medication abuse problem, using various substances to sleep.
4. On 18 July 2025, you contacted Turning Point Addiction Medicine Unit (TPAMU) asking to be admitted for drug detox and treatment. You were accepted into the program on 21 July 2025, but you discharged yourself after just four days as you did not feel that the environment was 'right' for you to withdraw from illicit substances. I accept your counsel's submission that you left the facility because you experienced inappropriate behaviours from male patients and would now prefer a female only placement.
5. You told Ms Pitts that upon self-discharge, you experienced significant withdrawal symptoms and returned to methamphetamine and GHB use almost immediately. At the time of the supplementary assessment in September this year, you were back to using up to 1.5 grams of methamphetamine daily in conjunction with up to 100 mils of GHB per day. While you continue to express a desire to cease your drug use you are unclear on how to facilitate this independently.
6. You told Ms Pitts that you had been allocated to a drug counsellor at TPAMU, but you were unsure of their name. You said you had a good rapport with this counsellor and had been engaging with them for two weeks and planned to have weekly sessions.

1. You reported to Ms Pitts that you started gambling on-line and at poker machine venues in 2021. You said you currently spend any spare money you have on gambling or if you have no money you play on free on-line gambling sites. You said you have been referred to a gambling help service after you became concerned with the level of your gambling but had not yet made an appointment. You said you had completed some on-line programs on the Gambling Help Online site.
2. You do not have any prior criminal convictions. You do have some pending matters in the Magistrates Court which were allegedly committed in August 2024, and in March and August 2025 but I do not give any consideration to these matters not only because most are of a different nature to your current charges but because the charges are unresolved. As stated in DPP v Newman (a pseudonym)[11] the mere fact that a person has been charged is not evidence that he or she has committed the offence and it is an irrelevant matter.

1. I now turn to an assessment of your prospects of rehabilitation.
2. Your counsel submitted that your prospects of rehabilitation should be assessed as 'above guarded'. You have no criminal history. You have engaged in 'counselling and care and recovery support' from 11 August and 23 October 2025 with Anglicare. This was part of a referral under the Family Reunification Program made in late June 2025 to facilitate your reunification with your children. In a letter dated 23 October 2025, a senior Family Reunification Practitioner from Anglicare, Ms Strickland, wrote that while you have not achieved abstinence or reunification with your children, you have made some progress in your recovery and you have moved from the contemplation stage to the preparation stage of change. Ms Strickland also noted that you know you require residential treatment, and you are actively planning this. You have been referred for finance counselling, and you have developed insight into the impact of your drug use.
3. Evidence was given by your friend and housemate Alexandra Kristie who has known you for over 10 years. She testified that you were homeless until she offered you a room and confirmed that you had previously been in coercive relationships. She gave evidence that you were a different person before you started drug use and entered bad relationships. Ms Kristie told the court that your drug use now was minimal, and you were dedicated to ceasing drug use.
4. I consider your prospects of rehabilitation to be guarded and highly contingent on you ceasing drug use. I note that you say you are dedicated to achieving sobriety and you are in touch with Anglicare, which is a positive step. It remains the case however that you are still using drugs as I understand it and you told Ms Pitts you continue to spend time with peers engaged in illicit substance use. Whilst Ms Kristie has assisted you greatly by offering you accommodation and support, it is respectfully, not an ideal situation as she also admitted drug use (albeit she testified at the time she had been clean for six days). You also do not have any real family support and no pro-social acquaintances or activities.

1. I also give weight to the delay in finalising these matters although it has not been considerably long. I accept you have experienced some degree of anxiety having these matters unresolved and not knowing whether you will be immediately imprisoned. You have not achieved any significant rehabilitation during the period of the delay.

1. Bearing in mind the principles of totality and proportionality, I consider that there should be a modest degree of cumulation between the sentences imposed on Charges 1 and 2 and those imposed on Charges 3 and 4. That is, I intend to impose concurrent sentences on Charges 1 and 2 as your offending was in effect a course of conduct and the charges are only separated because you did not receive payment for some claims. I do not intend to impose any cumulation between the sentences on Charges 3 and 4 as the charges can also be seen to be part of a course of conduct given the dates of the offences. I do however intend to impose a modest amount of cumulation between the sentence on Charge 1 and that imposed on Charge 4 to reflect the different types of fraud you committed.

1. I was provided with a schedule containing several intermediate appellate sentences. I have had regard to the sentences bearing in mind that they provide a yardstick or illustration of the available sentences rather than being a definitive statement of the appropriate sentence. Each case must be assessed on its own facts and circumstances.

1. The prosecution submitted initially that a head sentence should be imposed on you which exceeded three years' imprisonment such that a non-parole period was required to be set. The prosecution subsequently accepted that it would be open for me to impose a head sentence of three years or less which would facilitate your release on a recognisance release order but that this should be after you had served some component of the term of imprisonment immediately.
2. Your counsel submitted firstly that you be placed on a community correction order, noting that such an order would provide you with assistance towards rehabilitation and have a punitive effect. In the alternative, he submitted that you be sentenced to a term of imprisonment but that I order your release forthwith on a RRO as you have never been in gaol, it is a negative environment, you have mental health and substance abuse issues that require treatment, and your offending was unsophisticated.
3. In terms of the first option, I do not consider a CCO would sufficiently reflect the seriousness of your offending. Whilst I do have regard to the need to promote your rehabilitation, a CCO would not reflect the primacy to be given to general deterrence and the need to reflect a level of specific deterrence, punishment and denunciation. As noted, your offending involved a not insignificant sum of money, it was deliberate and fuelled by your desire to obtain money to, inter alia, buy drugs. A survey of comparative intermediate appellate sentences also reveals that the imposition of a CCO would be a rare sentencing outcome for offending of this nature and quantity and open in only extremely extenuating circumstances.
4. In terms of your counsel's second option, I do accept it would be open to place you on an RRO. In determining whether you should be released immediately or be required to serve some portion of the sentence of imprisonment, I have endeavoured to balance the seriousness of your offending and the relevant sentencing principles with your plea of guilty, lack of priors, the need to promote your rehabilitation, your relatively young age, your unfortunate life circumstances and your mental health issues. In my view the overall seriousness of your offending requires that you serve some portion of the term of imprisonment immediately but in determining the length of that period, I have given significant weight to your personal mitigating factors.

1. Please stand Ms Miller. On Charge 1, you are convicted and sentenced to 16 months' imprisonment. The sentence commences today.
2. On Charge 2, you are convicted and sentenced to eight months' imprisonment. I order that this sentence be served concurrently with the sentence imposed on Charge 1.
3. On Charge 3, you are convicted and sentenced to one month imprisonment.
4. On Charge 4, you are convicted and sentenced to five months' imprisonment. I order that this sentence be served concurrently with the sentence imposed on Charge 3.
5. I direct that the sentences on Charges 3 and 4 commence 3 months before the expiration of the sentence imposed on Charge 1. This results in a total effective head sentence of 18 months' imprisonment.
6. I order that you be released pursuant to s 20(1)(b) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) after serving four months of the term of imprisonment upon entering a recognisance in the sum of $500 to be of good behaviour for 18 months.
7. Pursuant to s 6AAA of the Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), but for your plea of guilty, I would have imposed a sentence of 22 months' imprisonment and ordered that you serve six months of the sentence before being released by recognisance in the sum of $1,000 to be of good behaviour for two years.
8. I order pursuant to s21B of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), that you pay reparation in the sum of $114,430 to the Commonwealth of Australia.
9. You can sit down now.
10. So, Ms Miller, Mr Kozlowski will no doubt explain this to you, but I am required to explain that what order means, and it means that you have been sentenced to imprisonment for 18 months, but you only have to serve four months of that, then when you will be released and you have to be of good behaviour for 18 months after that. And if you are not of good behaviour, you can be brought back before me and required to go back to gaol and finished the rest of the time, which would be 14 months.
11. Thank you very much both of you for your assistance and your very helpful submissions as well.
12. MS STYLES: As Your Honour pleases.
13. HER HONOUR: Thank you.

[1] Supplementary report of Ms Pitts. Para [55]-[56].

[2] Phillips v DPP (Cth) [2024] VSCA 13; Shmuel v The King [2023] VSCA 135; DPP (Cth) v Gregory [2011] VSCA 145; (2011) 34 VR 1; DPP (Cth) v Rowson [2007] VSCA 176, [24]; DPP (Cth) v Goldberg [2001] VSCA 107; (2001) 48 ATR 549.

[3] Tran v The Queen [2021] VSCA 292, Dickinson v The Queen [2021] VSCA 50.

[4] Keefe v The Queen [2014] VSCA 201, [77]; Hili v The Queen [2010] HCA 45; (2010) 242 CLR 520, [63].

[5] Hili v The Queen [2010] HCA 45; (2010) 242 CLR 520, [63].

[6] R v Jones [2010] NSWCCA 108; (2010) 76 ATR 249 at [13]; R v Schwabegger [1998] 4 VR 649; DPP (Cth) v Gregory [2011] VSCA 145; (2011) 34 VR 1 at [53]; Samarakoon v The Queen [2018] VSCA 119, [99].

[7] DPP (Cth) v Page & Ors [2006] VSCA 224 at [45]; Warden v The Queen [2019] VSCA 2

[8] R v Stitt (1998) 102 A Crim R 428 at 430.

[9] R v Richard [2011] NSWSC 866, at [65(f)]; R v De Leeuw [2015] NSWCCA 183, [116].

[10] DPP (Cth) v De La Rosa [2010] NSWCCA 215; 79 NSWLR 1. [63].

[11] (2015) VSCA 25, [25].