Remarks on sentence
22 His Honour reviewed the factual background to the offences and noted that the applicant and the two of his co-offenders who had been apprehended, consistently maintained that the weapons used in all the offences had been unloaded. His Honour also reviewed the sentences imposed on the applicant's co-offenders, MM and Khaliquiy. It was accepted by counsel for the applicant that the applicant was in a different category to those offenders and that no issue of parity arose.
23 At the conclusion of his review of the offences, his Honour said:
"Suffice to say that the offences to which I have referred were not only numerous but involved frightening episodes involving the use of firearms whether loaded or unloaded naturally causing fear and distress to all of those who observed the offenders at the various venues as they stole large quantities of cash from those venues.
It needs hardly to be said that the extent of the criminality of those offences is extremely high and requires significantly serious penalties to reflect the necessity for both general and specific deterrence."
24 His Honour had regard to the applicant's criminal record and concluded that it did not assist him by way of mitigating the seriousness of the offences. His Honour reviewed the subjective matters, to which reference has been made, and the recommendations of the pre-sentence report and of the psychologists. His Honour had specific regard to the youth of the applicant, the fact of the plea of guilty, the admissions made at an early point in time, that this was the first significant period in custody that the applicant had experienced, and the need for supervision and an extended period of parole. His Honour was prepared to accept that the applicant had some remorse and contrition for what had occurred. His Honour noted that the long history of drug abuse explained but did not excuse the offences which were before him.
25 His Honour referred to the guideline judgment of this Court in R v Henry (1999) 46 NSWLR 346. He noted that although some of the factors there identified applied to the applicant, Spigelman CJ had identified others which might lead to an increase of the suggested range of sentences such as the nature of the weapon, the vulnerability of the victim, the number of offenders and the effect on the victims, including the intensity of the threat or actual use of force. His Honour also noted that guideline judgments were not meant to be applied rigidly in every case but were intended to be indicative of the range of sentence that was regarded as appropriate. A sentencing judge retained a discretion to depart from the guideline but if he did so the reasoning for such a departure needed to be articulated.
26 His Honour made further reference to aggravating factors and the application of s21A of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999:
"It is necessary that the court indicate the extent of the criminality involved in these offences. To enable the court to do so, it is appropriate that I now refer to the provisions of s21A(2) and (3) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act . I do not propose to refer to those sections in respect of each individual offence. Most of the offences to which the offender has pleaded guilty, in relation to s97, have relatively common features and I consider that an indication of which of those factors under s(2) of the section apply, should be read as applying to each of these matters.
When one turns to s(2), aggravating factors, the following aggravating factors appear to be present in these cases (b), (c), (d), (e), (g), (i), (j), (l), (m) and (n). In relation to mitigating factors, these are (h), (i) and (k). Whilst the determination of the objective seriousness of the offences does not rely entirely on a balancing act between s(2) and (3), the presence of the number of aggravating factors to which I have referred, having regard to the comments made in R v Henry , indicate that the extent of criminality is in my opinion such as to require a starting point for the sentences to be significantly above the Henry guideline. Indeed the way in which I would propose these matters is to say that the offending in each of these offences under s97(2) was, at the very least, towards the top of the mid range of objective seriousness."
27 When further considering the objective seriousness of the offences his Honour noted that the offences under s97(2) each carried a maximum penalty of 25 years imprisonment and that the offence under s97(1) carried a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment. In that regard his Honour thought:
"A starting point for consideration of sentence for those matters should be something approaching 12 years."
28 When considering subjective matters, his Honour accepted that the applicant's pleas of guilty were made at the earliest opportunity and in accordance with the guideline judgment in R v Thomson and Houlton (2000) 49 NSWLR 383. His Honour proposed a discount of twenty five percent for the utilitarian value of the plea and those aspects of remorse and contrition which it contained.
29 His Honour specifically considered the young age of the applicant and the consequential need to have regard to his rehabilitation. On the other hand, his Honour referred to R v Pham (1991) 55 A Crim R 128 where this Court restated the principle that even in the case of young offenders, the gravity of the crime was an important consideration and rehabilitation may have to be subordinated to the principles of deterrence and the protective function of a criminal court:
"Deterrence and retribution do not cease to be significant merely because persons in their late teens are the persons committing grave crimes."
30 His Honour found that special circumstances had been established in the applicant's favour. His reasons for so finding were: