STATE OF TASMANIA V RODNEY GENE CROSSWELL ESTCOURT J
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE 3 JULY 2019
The defendant, Rodney Gene Croswell has pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated burglary, one count of stealing, one count of stealing a firearm and two counts of unlawfully injuring property.
The offences were all committed on 31 July 2018 at which time the defendant was aged 35.
As of 24 January 2018, the defendant was made subject to a Firearms Prohibition Order. Further, at the time of offending, he was on parole, having been most recently released on 9 March 2018.
At approximately 7am on 31 July 2018, Anthony Percy and Tiana Williams both left their home in Dysart.
Between 7:00am and 7:50am, the defendant, in company with a person known to him as Jake Pearce, unlawfully entered the house and a shed on the property. While within the house, the defendant and Pearce accessed the firearms safe utilising grinders, damaging it, and from the safe stole six firearms and firearms parts, which were removed them from the property.
The firearms were:
- A Mossberg 195K-A 12 gauge bolt action shot gun, serial number 29437 (value $1500)
- Stevens single shot 12 gauge shot gun, serial number V29CR (value $1500)
- Tikka T3 300WSM short magnum high powered rifle, serial number 43895 (value $1200)
- Tikka T3 222 centre fire rifle, serial number 021265 (value $1200)
- Norinco JW 15A 22 rifle, serial number 9501518 (value $500)
- An antique Hollis and Sons 12 gauge shot gun, serial number 90721 (value unknown)
Mr Percy returned to his house at 7:55am and found the main gate open, the shed door unlocked and a padlock which had secured the shed was cut open and left lying on the ground, and a grinder was missing from a work bench. The firearm safe in the house was open and empty.
Other items missing from the house were two sets of batteries, valued at $300.
Fingerprints were lifted from the scene, which were found to match the defendant as were DNA samples. The defendant was arrested in the early hours of 1 August 2018. Following the interview, the defendant was remanded in custody. His parole was revoked on 10 August 2018.
The Tikka T3 300WSM was located in a search of a Moonah residence in late August 2018. Five of the firearms have not been recovered.
Pursuant to s 68(1) of the Sentencing Act 1997, I make a compensation order in favour of Anthony Ronald Percy, in an amount to be assessed.
The defendant has a long history of crimes of dishonesty, including armed robbery, and some firearms offences, over almost 20 years. They were summarised by an appeal court judge when the defendant was last sentenced in 2012 to a global sentence of eight years’ imprisonment, as including in excess of 125 convictions for burglary, aggravated burglary and stealing, 24 convictions for motor vehicle stealing, or attempting to commit that offence, together with convictions for other offences involving dishonesty. He had five convictions for escape, three convictions for destroying property, six convictions for threatening, abusing or resisting a police officer, two convictions for assaulting a police officer, one conviction for common assault and one conviction for aggravated assault.
The defendant is now 36. He has a partner and 5 children. He spent his early teen years in State care. There he was abused, and as a result of which he developed a drug problem, using cannabis and amphetamines. His significant record for dishonesty offending commences in 1997. He attributes his offending to his drug use.
Despite the defendant’s record of prior convictions, and the length of time that he has spent in custody since 1997, I am informed that he has skills as a general labourer and in the use of welding equipment. He has been employed intermittently between prison sentences. During his most recent period of parole he was working at a winery in Richmond.
The defendant contends that he did not believe he was about to participate in a crime until he was on his way to the property, but rather Mr Pearce had claimed that the address was his father’s, and had asked him to assist in opening the safe, having broken off a key inside the lock. The defendant accepts that he could have changed his mind once he realised what was happening.
The defendant claims that he did not personally remove the firearms, and that he did not receive any property or other benefit from the offending and that he does not know the whereabouts of the firearms. The Crown does not seek to disprove those assertions.
There is nothing really mitigating about the defendant’s particular involvement in this matter, apart from his pleas of guilty for which I have made an appropriate discount, and his expressed remorse. The lack of planning is the absence of an aggravating factor, which distinguishes it in this case, in my view, from the matter of Matthew Davey sentenced 3 May 2019, who I should add, had not pleaded guilty.
As Wood J said recently in respect of the defendant Davey, at least as far as firearm stealing was concerned, when sentencing Davey to 2 ½ years’ imprisonment for planned and targeted firearm stealing; “the deterrence of the defendant and other like-minded offenders is a priority; firearms represent a valuable commodity to criminals unable to obtain them legally. Sentencing courts have emphasised that this crime when it involves firearms likely to enter the black market, should attract harsh penalties. Ultimately, deterrent sentences are necessary in order to protect the community.”
I record convictions on all 5 counts and the defendant is sentenced to a period of 20 months’ imprisonment, to commence from the end of his present sentence, with eligibility for parole after serving half of that sentence that I have just imposed. In my view, it is inappropriate to impose a concurrent sentence having regard to s 76 of the Corrections Act 1997.