BACKGROUND AND FACTS
8 Each of the offences for which the applicant was sentenced formed part of a single incident. An agreed statements of facts was tendered before the sentencing Judge which indicated that the applicant, who had been on parole for the offence of armed robbery when the offences occurred, was, at the time of sentencing forty-three years of age.
9 The statement of facts also shows that on 13 February 2001, plain clothes police, who had been conducting surveillance on a Matraville residence, for reasons unrelated to the applicant, sighted a stolen Holden Commodore vehicle. Upon following this vehicle they observed the driver to be the applicant. When the applicant became aware of police presence (lights and sirens having been activated) he initially slowed the vehicle and moved towards the kerb side. However, he then accelerated and proceeded to drive along Anzac Parade at speeds of between eighty and 100 kilometres per hour failing to give way to other vehicles where required, weaving in and out of traffic, and, at one point, driving for some thirty metres on the footpath on the western side of Anzac Parade.
10 Whilst driving on this footpath the applicant failed to deviate from two police officers (at least one of whom was wearing full uniform,) who had positioned themselves on the footpath in front of the vehicle with their guns drawn and aimed at the vehicle. These police officers, fearing for their lives, were forced to leap clear of the car as the applicant continued towards them without stopping.
11 Due to traffic, and to the danger to the public caused by the applicant's driving, the pursuit was terminated. The applicant was later apprehended by Surry Hills police, who had sighted the stolen vehicle in Redfern. They followed the applicant on foot and arrested him in a nearby laneway. Inquiries revealed that he had never held a New South Wales driver's licence. An inspection of the stolen vehicle revealed that the lock barrel had been completely removed. A screwdriver was found on the front passenger side.
12 The vehicle had been stolen at some time between 10 and 11 February 2001 from Earlwood. The applicant claimed that he had moved to shared accommodation premises at Matraville, on the day prior to committing the offences which brought him before the court. On that day he said three men whom he did not know had come to his premises, and had left behind the Commodore sedan which he knew to be stolen. He claimed that his intention had been simply to remove the vehicle from the vicinity of his house, and to "park it around the corner", because he was concerned about his parole status.
13 He said that upon seeing the police he had panicked, that the situation had "snowballed" and that, on seeing the officers pointing guns at him, he had believed that he was going to die. He stated that the reason for his non-appearance part way through his trial before Judge Luland was that his parole had been revoked by reason of two failures to report to the Probation and Parole Service. He had accordingly faced the realisation that he would have been returned to prison, regardless of the outcome of the trial.
14 Additionally, he claimed in evidence that he did not wish to return to gaol out of concern for the welfare of his father, who was in poor health, and who later died. He claimed that he had recently become engaged and that, with the money from his father's estate, he had planned to move to South Australia.
15 The applicant had spent some twelve years in gaol prior to his release on parole in February 2000, and had in total spent around seventeen years of his life in gaol. He stated that he had been having difficulty adjusting to his freedom on parole. He was also unemployed, although he had initially found six weeks employment at a container yard. He claimed that he had been asked to leave that position because of his criminal record. He had completed an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker, prior to being imprisoned, but despite obtaining qualifications in prison as a fitness instructor, learning to speak Arabic and developing skills in calligraphy and ceramics, he had been unable to find other employment after losing the container yard job. He was in receipt of a pension from Centrelink.
16 The pre-sentence report indicated that he had experienced a disruptive early life. At the age of twelve years he had left home and lived in Kings Cross, experimenting heavily with drugs and alcohol. He did not continue these activities. However, he said that he had been introduced to cocaine in gaol and that upon his release from gaol he "fell into a circle of cocaine users," and that he had in fact consumed cocaine the day before the offences occurred. He did not, however, consider himself to have a drug dependency.
17 He indicated, when giving evidence at the sentencing proceedings, that he had found it difficult, after his imprisonment, to communicate with people, and felt afraid of crowded places such as buses, trains and shopping centres, stating that these experiences were akin to "going through a twilight zone from one era to another."
18 Examples of such experiences which he gave to the sentencing court were of never having used an automatic teller machine prior to his release and of being unable to use ticketing machines at railway stations.
19 He claimed to have had two "nervous breakdowns" within the first three weeks of release, and to have been stabbed three months after his release. Despite these events he said that he had been "starting to come good" and was "starting to settle out there until this happened."