STATE OF TASMANIA v NATHAN SCOTT DAVIDSON 11 DECEMBER 2019
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Nathan Davidson, you plead guilty to one count of dealing with proceeds of crime. On 14 October 2014 the police searched your home in South Launceston. They found a large quantity of goods which had been stolen from a business complex in York Street. The goods included electrical goods, homewares, linen and toiletries. You knew that the goods were stolen and the police found evidence of you having helped unload the goods into your house the previous evening. The value of the goods has not been established with certainty. Others involved in the theft were sentenced on the basis that the value was $70,000 but that may be an overstatement. Once found, all of the goods were returned to the respective owners.
On 14 November 2018 I sentenced you to imprisonment for four years from 6 June 2018, with eligibility for parole after having served half of that term. That sentence was for drug trafficking and six counts of dealing with property suspected of being the proceeds of crime. Those property crimes involved considerable criminality and were committed in November and December 2014. In various locations around Launceston you were storing large quantities of stolen goods of substantial value, suspecting they were stolen, and encouraging the trade in them. The property which is the subject of the crime for which you are now to be sentenced formed part of the same course of similar conduct. You were charged in 2014 but, for some reason, the charges were adjourned by the police indefinitely without telling the DPP. They could have been included in the indictment dealt with in 2018, but were not, I infer because they were lost in the system.
Reference should be made to my comments when passing sentence on 14 November 2018 as to the matters which I took into account. You have been in prison since then and your circumstances have not otherwise changed. I also take into account that the delay in prosecution of this charge is not attributable to you and your plea of guilty. You have been attempting to rehabilitate yourself when in prison by engaging well in programs to address alcohol and drug abuse and anti-social conduct. The question is, taking all matters relevant to sentence into account, whether I should make a sentencing order which results in a material change to the sentence you are already required to serve. I have concluded that I should not, although the criminality involved should be reflected in the sentencing order.
Nathan Davidson, you are convicted. You are sentenced to imprisonment for six months to be served concurrently with the sentence you are currently serving.