DPP v Knapp [2025] VCC 535

12 penalty units for driving in excess of the prescribed concentration of drugs.

1. I turn now to the circumstances of your offending which were comprehensively outlined in the Summary of Prosecution Opening for Plea dated 21 March 2025. I shall summarise those facts here.
2. The first group of offences occurred on 21 September 2023. That afternoon you attended a house in Whittens Lane, Doncaster and entered through an unlocked laundry door (Charge 1 - burglary). You ransacked the master bedroom and located 3 envelopes containing a total of $7,000 cash.
3. The occupant of the house returned home and saw you holding a knife (RSO 27 - possess controlled weapon). You dropped the knife and tried to run away. The occupant unsuccessfully tried to stop you and you left with the $7,000 (Charge 2- theft).
4. You ran to Queens Avenue, Doncaster where you confronted your next victim who was sitting in the driver's seat of his 2023 Kia wagon. You opened the door and attempted to pull him from the car. He pushed back and you asked if he wanted to try the gun in your pocket. You pushed the car door into your victim's leg and face and punched him to the face. He managed to close the door however you tried to pull the window down, shattering it in the process. He was able to drive away as you tried to enter the rear passenger side door (Charge 3 - attempted carjacking).
5. You ran down Queens Avenue and approached an 82-year-old woman who was leaning into the boot of her 2021 Audi wagon, valued at approximately $30,000. You reached into the boot of the car and took her keys as she gave chase, yelling 'Give me my keys'. You ran back towards her car, got into the driver's seat and drove away (Charge 4 - theft of motor vehicle). Inside the car were keys, $50 cash and various personal and bank cards belonging to your victim (Charge 5 - theft).
6. Shortly thereafter, police in a marked car patrolling the area for the stolen vehicle saw you throw numerous items from the car as you drove off at speed. At the time you drove the vehicle you had never held a licence or permit to drive a car (RSO 21 - unlicensed driving).
7. The second group of offences occurred on 27 and 28 September 2023.
8. On the evening of 26 September 2023 your next victim received a Facebook message offering to buy a 2002 black Mitsubishi Lancer he was selling on Facebook Marketplace for $3,000. Using the name 'Jacob Smithens', you offered him $5,000 for the car. The following morning you exchanged messages to arrange a meeting.
9. You failed to attend the first meeting at 3.30pm but later arranged to meet at Ruffey Lake Park in Doncaster. You said you wanted to test drive the vehicle. You drove and your victim sat in the passenger seat for about 100 metres until you stopped, produced a steak knife and held it to his neck. You moved the knife back about 20cm before saying 'I'm gonna steal your car and if you don't give me what I want, it will result in you getting hurt with what I'm holding'.
10. Your victim attempted to push you away. He felt heat on his left side. He noticed a Toyota Camry had pulled up beside the Lancer and the driver was holding a blow torch in his direction. I accept that while you knew the armed robbery was to take place in company, you did not know of the presence of the blow torch. You took your victim's phone and you and your co-offender made demands for your victim's property. He gave you his necklace and jumper before getting out of the car and running away. You also kept his car and his phone (Charge 6 - Armed robbery).
11. At about 9.40 pm that evening, 27 September 2024, you crashed into another vehicle near the intersection of Blackburn Road and St Clem's Road, Doncaster East. You caused moderate damage but drove away without making any attempt to stop and exchange details with the other driver (RSO 28 - fail to stop).
12. At about 10.20 pm that night, you entered an unlocked rear door of a home in Kett Street, Nunawading. The occupant was in her bedroom at the time. (Charge 7 - aggravated burglary). You took keys to a 2010 Audi TT valued at about $30,000, a handbag containing $700 cash, bank cards, licences and an iPhone (Charge 8 - theft). You used the keys to enter the car parked outside and leave the scene (Charge 9 - theft of motor vehicle).
13. Shortly thereafter you entered another residence in Kett St, Nunawading via a rear sliding door. The occupant told you to leave. (Charge 10 - aggravated burglary). CCTV captured you carrying tools from the garage and loading them into the boot of the white Audi.
14. In the early hours of the next morning, at 2.30 am on 28 September 2024, a resident of Peppermint Grove, Box Hill South awoke to find you in her bedroom, demanding money and jewellery (Charge 11 - aggravated burglary). In fear, your victim ran from the house and noticed a white car with damage to the front parked outside.
15. Very soon after this, SC Codey Hayes and SC Shannon Brennan noticed you driving a white Audi erratically. They followed you into Roger Court, Nunawading where you collided with a 2009 Honda Accord parked on the side of the road. (RSO 38 - fail to stop, RSO 39 - fail to report to police).
16. You performed a U-turn at the end of the court and drove back towards police who were approximately 50-100 metres away from you. Police moved to the left to avoid a collision, but you accelerated heavily and veered to the right, colliding with the front of the police car (Charge 12 - aggravated offence of recklessly exposing emergency worker to risk by driving, RSO 13 - unlicenced driving). Air bags were deployed in both vehicles which were written off as a result of the collision. I have seen CCTV footage of this incident.
17. SC Brennan suffered pain and bruising to his back and knee (Charge 13 - cause injury recklessly). Inside the Audi police located a laptop and identification that did not belong to you (Charge 14 - handling stolen goods).
18. You were arrested and taken to hospital. Blood was taken from you which revealed a reading of 0.10 milligrams per litre of methylamphetamine (RSO 41 - drive exceeding prescribed concentration of a drug).
19. You participated in a record of interview in which you confirmed that you did not have a driver's licence and that the mobile telephone in the stolen Mitsubishi Lancer belonged to you.
20. At the time of all the offences outlined above you were on bail from the Ringwood Children's Court with a condition not to drive a motor vehicle.

1. Your offending is plainly serious and can properly be categorised as two distinct crime sprees. It was protracted in nature and involved a large number of victims, some of whom were of advanced years and many of whom you confronted with weapons.
2. Charge 6, the planned armed robbery during which you held a knife to the throat of your victim, is perhaps the most serious of your offences, however that by no means undermines the seriousness of the other charges, in particular the aggravated burglaries, the attempted carjacking and the emergency worker offences.
3. Only one of your victims, SC Brennan, suffered an injury and while I did not receive any Victim Impact Statements, it takes little to imagine the impact on him and indeed the obvious psychological impact of your offending on your other victims.

1. While not entered at the earliest stage, you indicated a plea of guilty shortly after a Case Assessment Hearing in this court. Your plea has significant utilitarian benefit. You have saved the court and the community the time and expense of running a trial and spared the witnesses the ordeal of giving evidence before a jury. In those circumstances, you have facilitated the administration of justice and you are entitled to a benefit for that.
2. By your plea of guilty, you have also demonstrated an acceptance of responsibility for your offending and a degree of remorse. I accept that you are developing insight into your offending and made appropriate expressions of remorse to Ms Cidoni, whose report I shall return to shortly. She found that you "showed emerging insight into the consequences of [your] offending behaviour, expressing remorse and a desire to break the cycle for the sake of [your] son".
3. When assessed by Youth Justice, you stated of the offending: 'it's the stupidest thing I have done in my life. I feel very remorseful for the families ... even though I didn't do much physical harm, I did mental harm'.

1. I turn now to your personal circumstances.
2. You are 20 years of age, having been born in December 2004. You were 18 at the time of the offending. Your parents separated when you were 2 years old and you have an older brother and a younger half-sister.
3. Both of your parents have a history of heavy alcohol consumption and you report not being adequately supervised as a child. You remember witnessing your grandmother's death when you were 3 years of age.
4. You were educated at Bimbadeen Heights Primary School and Mooroolbark College. Your attendance fell in Year 9, due to the COVID online learning model and your drug use, and you were expelled in Year 10.
5. You were subjected to physical punishments as a child and suffered a traumatic incident of abuse at the hands of a friend's father when you were aged between 6 and 8.
6. You experienced flashbacks and started to consume alcohol at the age of 12. You began cannabis and ecstasy use at age 13 and were taking Xanax and various other pills at the age of 14. You have repeatedly self-harmed, overdosed and attempted suicide.
7. You left home at the age of 15 to live with your girlfriend's family and resided there until that relationship ended when you were aged 17. You experienced periods of housing instability and were frequently 'couch-surfing' with friends. Prior to your remand you were living with a friend, Elijah, with whom you remain close.
8. In 2022, you were enrolled in the Five Acre Program through Youth Justice and underwent some training but stopped attending after a few months. You have been employed for brief periods but lost interest in the various roles you held and instead relied on family support or offending behaviour to meet your financial needs.
9. You engaged in sexual activity with a neighbour while heavily intoxicated in 2023 which you identify as a sexual assault perpetrated against you. This incident resulted in the birth of your son.
10. Before your arrest on these matters, you had been using 2g of methamphetamines daily but this had increased in the days immediately prior. You now take methadone.
11. You retain the support of your mother, who is now sober. Your infant son lives with your father and stepmother and your mother brings him to visit you in custody.
12. You were remanded in September 2023 and have remained in adult custody since that time. You reached out to a former partner, Ruby, in 2024 and you are now in a relationship with her.
13. I received character references from your mother, your grandmother and your partner. They speak of your lengthy substance abuse difficulties, their ongoing support for you and the motivation you find in your infant son to create a better life for yourself.
14. You have completed a number of courses while in custody for which I have received certificates, and you have been employed in metal industries during your remand.
15. I received a number of reports, being a psychiatric report from Dr Donal Hanratty dated 28 April 2024, a psychological report from Jeffrey Cummins dated 20 March 2025 and a psychological report from Gina Cidoni dated 23 April 2025. There are a number of inconsistencies between the reports, however you report failing to establish a rapport with Mr Cummins and thus your counsel urged me to set aside his report.
16. Dr Hanratty assessed you in relation to the potential defence of mental impairment. While he did not find that defence to be open to you, he suggested diagnoses of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder and various Substance Use Disorders. At the time of the assessment, Dr Hanratty opined that you had developed "a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others." Prior to your offending, he found that you had displayed tendencies towards "deceitfulness, impulsivity, aggressiveness [and] a reckless disregard for [your] and others' safety."
17. You told Mr Cummins you were unable to offer any explanation for your offending other than you were "off [your] head on Xanax". He diagnosed you with Complex PTSD, an Antisocial Personality Disorder, a Borderline Personality Disorder and polysubstance dependence. When discussing the offending with Mr Cummins you displayed a lack of remorse for the offending, some of which he found had clearly involved a level of rational planning.
18. Ms Cidoni diagnosed you with Complex PTSD, Borderline Personality Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder and various Substance Use Disorders. She found that your "profile indicates significant post-traumatic stress symptoms, suggesting that [you] continue to experience intrusive memories, emotional numbing, avoidance behaviours, and hyperarousal linked to past traumatic events. These symptoms point to ongoing difficulties in processing and managing the psychological impact of trauma, which further exacerbate [your] emotional instability, substance use, and challenges in interpersonal functioning."

1. Mr Knapp, this was most serious offending, consisting of two drug fuelled crime sprees in a matter of days in which you sought to raise funds to purchase more drugs. Your offending was protracted, involved multiple victims and the use of a weapon. Rather than reflect on the first episode of offending, you continued to use drugs and your offending escalated to involve a degree of planning for what could only be described as a relatively small gain.
2. Your youth weighs in your favour as per the principles in R v Mills [1998] 4 VR 235. While you have a relevant prior matter, you were not, in that instance, sentenced to a supervised disposition from which you may have benefitted. Rehabilitation must be a primary consideration in the sentence I impose, although I consider general and specific deterrence to be important factors.
3. You have a prior Children's Court finding of guilt for aggravated burglary, armed robbery and other offences. I must make it clear to you that neither the courts nor the community will tolerate this sort of behaviour.
4. The sentence I impose must also make clear to others in the community minded to act as you have done that drug fuelled crime sprees will necessarily result in stern punishment.
5. You confronted a number of people in their homes and their cars, in some instances armed with a knife. I consider community protection to be a real issue in passing sentence on you.
6. Ms Cidoni found that your "risk of violent reoffending is assessed as moderate to high, while [your] general risk of reoffending is considered high." Nevertheless, I consider that your prospects of rehabilitation are fair, contingent on you remaining abstinent from substance use. You are motivated by the recent birth of your first child but will need ongoing supports once you return to the community.
7. Your counsel, Mr Cunningham, argued that delay weighs in your favour as the matters have been hanging over your head for some 18 months now. While part of this was for a mental impairment assessment as referred to above, much of the delay was in the usual course of running a committal. I do accept however, that the delay has caused an ongoing state of uncertainty for you.
8. It was submitted by your counsel that the principles in in Bugmy v The Queen [2013] 249 CLR 571 have specific application in your case given your childhood exposure to alcohol and violence, your experience of abuse, your lapse into drug use and your disengagement from education.
9. The prosecution conceded the general application of these principles but not the specific, arguing there is no direct connection between the factors raised and the offending.
10. While the ongoing nature and extent of your drug use impacts the specific application of the Bugmy principles, I do find these factors have general application in your case. Your exposure to trauma, adversity and drug use from an early age renders your moral culpability somewhat less than that of an offender whose formative years have not been so marred. I moderate the sentence accordingly.
11. Your counsel further submitted that all limbs of R v Verdins [2007] VSCA 102; (2007) 16 VR 269 are engaged. This is a difficult submission given your voluntary use of significant amounts of illicit substances immediately prior to the offending on each occasion. It was submitted that your drug abuse was a result of your mental health difficulties and so there is a nexus to the offending.
12. The prosecution submitted that your deliberate drug use, the consequences of which you were well aware, was the cause of the offending and there is no clear nexus between any of your impairments and the offending. I agree. I do not find sufficient evidence as to the effect of your mental impairments on the offending, as opposed to the effect of your drug use on the offending, upon which to moderate the sentence in relation to limbs 1-4.
13. I do however, find that limb 5 of Verdins has application in that the existence of your impairments at the time of sentencing means that the sentence will weigh more heavily on you than it would on a person in normal health. As to limb 6, Ms Cidoni opines that your current imprisonment exacerbates your pre-existing mental health conditions. This limb therefore has application and I take it into account.
14. Charge 13, recklessly causing injury where the victim was an emergency worker on duty is a category 1 offence carrying a mandatory term of imprisonment of not less than 6 months unless the Court finds a special reason exists under s.10A of the Sentencing Act 1991. Your Counsel submitted that a special reason exists in your case, namely the combination of factors proffered in support of Bugmy and Verdins above. The prosecution disputes the existence of a special reason.
15. Charge 6, armed robbery committed in company with one or more other persons, and Charge 12, aggravated reckless exposure of an emergency worker to risk by driving are category 2 offences which require the court to impose a term of imprisonment other than a combination sentence. Exceptions to this mandatory imprisonment mirror the 'special reasons' referred to above and again, your counsel submitted that an exception is made out in your case on the basis outlined above. The prosecution disputes the existence of a special reason.
16. I do not find the existence of a special reason exempting you from the mandatory sentences prescribed for category 1 and category 2 offending. As such, I must impose a term of imprisonment of not less than 6 months on Charge 13 and I must impose a term of imprisonment on Charges 6 and 12 that is not in combination with a community corrections order.
17. I was referred to several 'comparable cases' by your counsel on discrete charges rather than on the offending in total, namely DPP v Jakovac [2020] VCC 153 and DPP v Bromley [2020] VCC 857 on attempted carjacking, DPP v Maafa [2022] VCC 341 and DPP v Parsons [2016] VCC 732 on armed robbery and DPP v Caruso [2021] VCC 1018 and DPP v Gatens [2022] VCC 484 on aggravated reckless exposure of an emergency worker to risk by driving. I take current sentencing practices into account.
18. I take just punishment and denunciation into account. I also take into account the principle of totality, noting at the same time the number of serious offences and the number of victims to be given consideration.
19. Your Counsel submitted that all sentencing purposes could be met by a period of detention in a Youth Justice Centre. The prosecution argued that while imprisonment was called for, the form of that detention is a matter for the court.
20. I had you assessed for a Youth Justice Centre order for which you were found suitable but given the length of the sentence I intend to impose, a Youth Justice disposition is not open.

1. On Charge 1, burglary, you are sentenced to 5 months imprisonment.
2. On Charge 2, theft, you are sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.
3. On Charge 3, attempted carjacking, you are sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.
4. On Charge 4, theft, you are sentenced to 4 months imprisonment.
5. On Charge 5, theft, you are sentenced to 2 months imprisonment.
6. On Charge 6, armed robbery, you are sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
7. On Charge 7, aggravated burglary, you are sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.
8. On Charge 8, theft, you are sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.
9. On Charge 9 theft of a motor vehicle, you are sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
10. On Charge 10, aggravated burglary, you are sentenced to 9 months imprisonment.
11. On Charge 11, aggravated burglary, you are sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.
12. On Charge 12, aggravated offence of recklessly exposing an emergency worker to risk by driving, you are sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
13. On Charge 13, causing injury recklessly where the victim was an emergency worker, you are sentenced to 6 months imprisonment.
14. On Charge 14, handling stolen goods, you are sentenced to 3 months imprisonment.
15. On related summary offences 13 and 21, unlicenced driving, you are sentenced to an aggregate fine of $300 with conviction.
16. On related summary offence 27, possess controlled weapon, you are sentenced to 2 months imprisonment.
17. On related summary offences 28 and 38, fail to stop after an accident and related summary offence 39, fail to report an accident, you are sentenced to an aggregate fine of $500 with conviction.
18. On related summary offence 41, drive exceeding prescribed concentration of drugs, you are sentenced to a fine of $500 with conviction.
19. I direct that the sentence on Charge 6 be the base sentence.
20. I direct that 3 months of the sentence on Charge 1, 1 month of the sentence on Charge 2, 6 months of the sentence on Charge 3, 2 months of the sentence on Charge 4, 1 month of the sentence on Charge 5, 6 months of the sentence on Charge 7, 2 months of the sentence on Charge 8, 4 months of the sentence on Charge 9, 6 months of the sentence on Charge 10, 9 months of the sentence on Charge 11, 4 months of the sentence on Charge 12, 4 months of the sentence on Charge 13, 1 month of the sentence on Charge 14 and 1 month of the sentence on related summary offence 27 be served cumulatively upon the sentence imposed on Charge 6 and on each other.
21. That makes a total effective sentence of 62 months or 5 years 2 months imprisonment.
22. I direct that you serve a minimum non-parole period of 3 years 2 months before being eligible for release on parole.
23. I declare that pursuant to s.18 of the Sentencing Act 1991, you have served 581 days by way of pre-sentence detention, excluding today.
24. I direct that on Charges 4, 9, 12 and related summary offence 41 your licence be cancelled and disqualified and you not be permitted to apply for any such licence for a period of 3 years.
25. I declare that had you not pleaded guilty, the sentence I would have imposed would have been a head sentence of 7 years with a non-parole period of 4 years and 6 months.
26. I grant the forfeiture order sought by the prosecution.