STATE OF TASMANIA v DANNY JOHN GRIEVE 2 JULY 2021
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr Grieve, you have pleaded guilty to one count of perverting justice, as well as the summary offences of negligent driving, operating a vehicle in a public place in an unnecessary execution of speed, acceleration or loss of traction and destroying property.
You committed the offences on 1 April 2020. On the previous night, your former partner had returned to your residence. Her reasons and the circumstances in which she returned are disputed but, as I have indicated during the course of argument, I think this makes little difference and does not require resolution. The Crown alleged that you were drinking heavily. I think you admit you were drinking, but certainly not heavily. There is dispute about whether you became aggressive and verbally abusive towards your partner, or whether it was a mutual argument, and that she was actually the instigator of the argument. Again, I do not think I need to resolve those matters. The fact of the matter is that there was a problem between you, and it is clear to me that you became angry as a result of that. She called a friend to assist her. The friend came to the house but both of them then left and went to the friend’s house. You got into your vehicle, which was in the name of your former partner and drove to the friend’s house. You then engaged in what seems to me to be clearly a demonstration of aggression and anger by committing the offence involving speed, acceleration and loss of traction. You did this by revving the vehicle, doing burnouts and generally driving in a negligent and aggressive manner. After this, you drove away at speed and as you entered and attempted to negotiate a roundabout, you lost control of the vehicle and collided with the front of a shop. You assert that your brakes failed at this point, but you also concede driving at speed and in an irresponsible manner. There was damage caused to the shop, the value estimated at $16,302.90, although I have now received a document that suggests it may be higher than that. The perverting justice crime, relates to your attempt to avoid the consequences of your conduct. Before you were aware that police were involved, you sent a text message to your former partner telling her that her car had been stolen. When police confronted you at your home, you told them that someone had broken into your residence, stolen the car keys and then the motor vehicle itself. You claimed to have found the crashed car and retrieved the key from the ignition. You then confirmed this story by statutory declaration. This, of course, was all false and designed to deflect the police from prosecuting you for what you had done.
You are 34 years of age. You have a poor criminal history with many convictions over several years for traffic offences, some of them quite serious. You have also been convicted of assault and some minor drug offences. However, you have not committed offending as serious as this before, and I note also that you have not been convicted of a driving offence since 2013. You are the sole full-time carer of your children, who are aged, on my calculation, eight and five. You have had a difficult life. The pre-sentence report sets out a long history of being subjected to abuse, both as a child and in your adult life. You have a number of physical health problems, and these seem to interrelate with your personality and psychological condition in a way which continues to make life difficult for you. The pre-sentence report has assessed you as requiring a high level of intervention and expresses the opinion that supervision would be of significant benefit to you, but, it is acknowledged you would have to travel to Burnie for this purpose. This will be difficult for you. But you should not be denied the benefit of supervision or the responsibility of having to participate in supervision, because of where you live.
These were serious criminal offences. The perverting justice is particularly serious because it deflects the resources of the police and undermines the integrity of the criminal justice system. In this case, it also effectively prevented testing to determine whether you had committed drink driving offences. However, I accept that you reacted out of panic when you gave this false story to the police, and you have now tried to make amends by pleading guilty to these charges. You are entitled to some mitigatory benefit for this. Your manner of driving was, of course, inexcusable, and the damage to the shop directly impacted on others who were completely innocent and did not deserve this outcome. There was also an unrealised but very real risk to other road users, and of course, to yourself.
In all of the circumstances, a sentence of imprisonment is the only appropriate sentence for the perverting justice crime. However, when I have regard to your plea of guilty, your personal circumstances, including your responsibilities to your children, and your lack of prior convictions for serious crime, I am satisfied that a wholly suspended sentence of imprisonment responds appropriately to your offending. There will have to be a licence disqualification.
Accordingly, the orders I make are as follows:
1 You are convicted of the crime and the offences to which you have pleaded guilty.
2 In relation to all offences, other than the negligent driving, you are sentenced to a global term of 6 months’ imprisonment, which will be suspended for a period of 18 months on the following conditions:
(a) That you are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment during that period.
3 I also make a separate Community Corrections order:
(a) That you will be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. You must comply with this condition for a period of 18 months. That period will commence from today. All of the usual conditions referred to in s 24 (5B) of the Sentencing Act will apply. These include that you must report to a probation officer in Burnie within three clear days of today. You can probably do that when you leave Court today. In addition to the core conditions the order shall also include the following special conditions:
(i) you must, during the operational period of the order attend educational and other programs as directed by the court or a probation officer;
(ii) submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by the probation officer;
(iii) submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer;
(iv) attend, participate in and complete the Family Violence Offender Intervention program as directed.
4 You will disqualified from driving for a period of 12 months which will commence today.
5 In respect of the offence of negligent driving, I impose no further penalty.
6 I make orders in favour of Samantha Louise Reeve and Crawford Insurance in an amount to be assessed and I adjourn assessment of those sums sine die.
7 I make an order in favour of Vanessa Bassett, the proprietor of the café, in the sum which she paid by way of excess which was $3,000.