DPP v Ghiller [2003] VSC 350

DPP v Ghiller [2003] VSC 350 - VSC 2003 case summary — Zoe

[29]

The circumstances briefly, the prosecution says, are these. On Saturday evening, 25 June 1994, a set of registration plates were stolen from a vehicle at Coffey Ford at Dandenong. On the same night a Nissan Bluebird was stolen from Berwick Nissan at Berwick. Three months later, on 19 September 1994, a police unit was patrolling in Hallam Road, Hallam. Constable Bryant was driving and Sergeant Beckwith was the passenger. They were travelling north along Hallam Road and observed a vehicle leaving the driveway of Bowans Timber and Hardware. This vehicle was the stolen Nissan Bluebird which was displaying the stolen registration plates. The police were unaware of the status of either the vehicle or its plates but the driver of the vehicle appeared to be impatient and so the police pulled over, waited for the vehicle to pass, then activated their police lights and headlights and pulled the vehicle over. Sergeant Beckwith opened the passenger side of the police vehicle and began to alight from the vehicle. As he did so he looked up and he saw that Mr Debs had alighted from the Nissan and was aiming a handgun directly at him. The prosecution says Mr Debs then fired a shot at Sergeant Beckwith, who threw himself back into his seat. Constable Bryant ducked for cover behind the dashboard and felt the force of glass hitting him in the left side of the face. Two further shots were fired by Mr Debs and struck the police vehicle. Sergeant Beckwith yelled to Constable Bryant to reverse the police vehicle as both members attempted to remove their revolvers to enable them to return fire to defend themselves. The Nissan then revved loudly and accelerated away which caused its wheels to spin. By this time the officers had removed their revolvers and had discharged five shots at the offender's vehicle but the Nissan sped off in a northerly direction towards the Princes Highway and disappeared. Both brave officers attempted to follow the Nissan but lost it. Fortunately, neither officer was shot by the bullets fired at them. One bullet hit the near side bonnet of the police vehicle and two bullets hit the windscreen and went on to hit the dashboard. A day later on 20 September 1994 the Nissan Bluebird with the stolen numberplates was found destroyed by fire behind the Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, Narre Warren.

[31]

Jason: "We've been shot at before." Gary: "Have ya?" Jason: "Yeh." Gary: "Fair dinkum." Jason: "By cops." (laughs.) Gary: "Ha, ha, that's fuckin' sensational. Yeh, what happened? Ha, ha, that's a fuckin' pissa." Jason: "Went to this, like don't fuckin' tell like, even these cunts, don't tell them." Gary: "No." Jason: "I don't want no one to know about this shit." Gary: "No, mate." Jason: "Ah a couple, ah, a few years ago, we were just lookin' around at car yards that night and we saw the fuckin' keys on a boot lid." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "And mate, it was that night, and no bull shit, those keys were for the car." Gary: "So..." Jason: "A brand, we got a brand new car, start it and just fuckin' drove it away, fuckin' brand new, zero k's on the clock." Gary: "What was it?" Jason: "A brand new Nissan Blue Bird." Gary: "Beautiful, yeh." Jason: "And ah, we used that, we had dummy plates, we used that for ages." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "And then, um, fuckin' one time we went through a real dry patch, real bad. So we just doin', fuckin', hit and runs mate, just smash and grabs." Gary: "Yeh?" Jason: "We're using this thing." Gary: "Oh, fuck." Jason: "Did about fuckin' eight in one night, one after another, just going bang bang bang bang, just grabbed as much shit as we could." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "And then we pulled out of a place and as we pulled out of a place, cops have driven past." Gary: "Oh." Jason: "And I thought, oh fuck." Gary: "Heart sink?" Jason: "And I was driving, yeh." Gary: "Yeh." Jason, "Fuck you, I was driving, straight away my partner pulled out his rod and he goes." Gary: "Not getting caught." Jason: "Just fuckin', he goes stay on the speed limit. I stayed under the speed limit, they did a U'y straight away, straight away." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "Come up right beside us, behind us and the lights started flashing and I said." Gary: "Fuck, yeh." Jason: "Fuckin' hell, what are we gonna do, what are we gonna do?" Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "He goes, and I kicked it down a boot and he goes no, no, no, no, pull over, pull over." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "So I like, I pulled over, he's gotten out, opened the door and he's just gone fuckin' bang, bang, bang." Gary: "Fair dinkum." Jason: "And, ah, and then like they shot back a couple of times." Gary: "Fuckin' you would have been shit." Jason: "And he shot, he shot, yeh, I was fuckin' like this, and then he shot a couple of more times and then I took off." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "And they didn't even come after us, they just stayed there." Gary: "Fair dinkum?" Jason: "Oh, mate, my god." Gary: "Ha, ha, ha." Jason: "No more jokes, man, they had two choppers out, they went fuckin' mental, they went mental." Gary: "Fair dinkum?" Jason: "Yeah, and then we, um, got rid of the car." Gary: "Yeah." Jason: "I think it was a week." Gary: "Fuck, that's a good effort." Jason: "A couple of days after." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "I can't remember but, but this was years ago, a couple of days after we burnt the cunt." Gary: "Yeh." Jason: "At fucken Fountain Gate Shopping Centre, we put it at the back where despatch is, Safeway."

[59]

The pretended crimes, and the role-playing, may be summarised as follows (containing myself to the main events). After two months of developing a relationship with Mr Ghiller in which Mr Ghiller discussed his marital and financial problems and revealed low-level criminality, on 1 April 2000 the undercover operative Gary proffered part-time crime to Mr Ghiller as I have shortly reviewed in paragraph 35. Then on 4 April 2000, after a meeting with another covert operative at a hotel in Richmond, Gary and Mr Ghiller discussed doing a run-through of a flat of a drug dealer in Richmond. Mr Ghiller was given $100 by Gary. On 6 April 2000 the pretended run through occurred while Mr Ghiller remained outside in the vehicle. He was given another $100 by Gary for being the driver. On 30 April 2000 in Richmond, Gary and another covert operative did a pretended burglary while Mr Ghiller remained in the car as a lookout. He was given $300 for that task. On 17 May 2000 in Glen Waverley, Gary picked up a pretended illegal parcel while Mr Ghiller remained in the car. On 24 May 2000 an extrapolated scenario was played out by Gary and other covert operatives and in which Mr Ghiller took part. It was a violent pretended kidnap (of another police operative) on the southern bank of the Yarra River in South Yarra (in a controlled area at night) and removal of the pretended victim to a remote area in Kinglake where the victim was threatened with death. On 11 June 2000 Gary and Mr Ghiller drove to Melbourne Airport and then followed a pretended target to the city as part of a plan to kidnap the target in the future as the target was an illicit diamond importer. On 20 June 2000 in the one matter which had connection with reality, a contact (Zoran) of Mr Ghiller's delivered a vehicle to Gary's (pretended) premises and the vehicle remained there while Zoran made a fraudulent insurance claim that the vehicle had been stolen. Mr Ghiller stated that he was going to strip the car for parts and did so. On 29 June 2000 Gary drove Mr Ghiller to Port Melbourne to rehearse preparations for a "big job" including examination of firearms. On 17 July 2000 Gary and Mr Ghiller were in Adelaide and drove back to Melbourne as part of a pretended scenario in which Mr Ghiller was told he would be part of the criminal gang by Terry (a covert operative pretending to be the criminal head) and that Mr Ghiller would earn $150,000 - $200,000 in the coming weeks. At this stage, with the arrests of Mr Ghiller, Mr Debs and Mr Roberts imminent, the covert operatives essentially were stalling for time.

At a glance

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Before

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Judgment (99 paragraphs)

Parties

Cases Cited (2)