STATE OF TASMANIA v JAMIE LEIGH JONES 18 APRIL 2019
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr Jones, you have pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving. You have also pleaded guilty to the summary offences of unlicensed driving and failing to comply with the duties of a driver involved in a crash.
The offences were committed on 9 July 2018. At that time, you were driving your motor vehicle despite not having a driver’s licence. It is clear that you had been driving earlier in the day for a significant period and also that you had consumed a considerable quantity of alcohol during the course of the day. At about 8 pm, you were driving alone in the vehicle in order to return to your home after having collected some takeaway food. You were driving through a residential area, when you came across roadworks. The roadworks meant that the bitumen road surface had been removed and the road base material was exposed. The surface was in poor condition. The speed limit was 20 km/h and you passed two signs advising you of that speed limit as you entered the roadworks. Despite this, you drove along that section of the road at about 140 km/h. You did this because you had made an impulsive and spontaneous decision to crash the car. It is not established that you deliberately drove onto the footpath with the intention that you would crash the vehicle, but in the process of travelling at that speed, and because of the speed at which you were travelling, you lost control of the vehicle. That was your intended outcome. You were attempting to harm yourself, and perhaps to take your own life. I am satisfied that that is the case. The practical result of losing control of your vehicle was that the vehicle travelled out of control at a considerable speed and for a considerable distance, it would seem somewhere between 100 and 200 metres. At least part of this journey occurred after the vehicle had mounted the footpath, and that is the case irrespective of whether you intended that to occur. The vehicle eventually came to a stop when it collided with the brick plinth and letterbox of a house.
Despite being approached by and speaking with local residents, you left your vehicle and the area in order to return home. By doing so, you breached the road rule which required you to remain at the scene and provide relevant particulars to the owner of property damaged in the crash.
You are 24 years of age. Your partner, with whom you were living at the time, and you have three young children. I am told that you and your partner have since separated, but you still have considerable contact with your children. You have an extremely poor driving record, which includes a number of matters relating to unlicensed driving and disqualified driving, as well as a conviction in 2011 for reckless driving. However, I do observe that the majority of this offending occurred when you were 17 years of age or younger. Since that time and until the commission of the offences which bring you before the Court today, your compliance with the law had improved. There have been a very limited number of traffic contraventions in that time, nothing nearly as serious as the conduct involved in these offences, although I have been told there may be some matters pending in the Magistrates Court. Over many years, you have had difficulties with alcohol and drug use and have found it difficult to emotionally cope with various challenges in your life. A psychiatric report prepared in 2017 diagnosed borderline intellectual functioning and personality disorder. A more recent psychiatric report, one prepared for this case, confirms that diagnosis. In particular, it notes an ongoing depressive reaction to allegedly false allegations of sexual abuse made against you many years ago. You claim that you were thinking about this, that is the false allegations of sexual abuse and their effect on your life, when you decided to crash your car in an act of attempted self-harm, or possibly suicide. You assert that this is why you drove as you did. In his report, Dr Jordan expresses the opinion that you were “suffering mental impairment in the form of suicidal ideation stemming from his innate borderline personality traits, amplified by evidence of an ongoing depressive reaction to longstanding but false allegations of sexual misdemeanours”, and that this was occurring at the time of the driving. I accept this, but I suspect that your decision-making capacity may also have been affected by the alcohol you had consumed that day. It seems that since the day in question, you have recognised the need for and taken up ongoing psychological counselling. The psychologist you have been seeing is reported as expressing considerable concern about your wellbeing, noting ongoing distress and post-traumatic stress symptoms. You seem to have developed some insight into the effect that alcohol has on you because you claim to have given up drinking alcohol. The pre-sentence report that I have been provided with recommends supervision by way of a community corrections order. I think that there is considerable merit in this recommendation.
Your actions in deliberately leaving the roadway at high speed, irrespective of the underlying reason, constituted driving which was extremely dangerous, not only to you personally, but to others as well. The danger was significantly enhanced by the fact that you were driving through a residential area. If there had been pedestrians on the footpath or other cars in the vicinity, or even someone in the front yard of their home, the consequences could have been catastrophic. However, fortunately this was not the case. Your culpability is aggravated by the fact that you had clearly consumed and were still probably affected by alcohol, and that you were driving whilst unlicensed. On the other hand, the dangerous aspect of the driving was relatively short lived and for this reason can be distinguished from more serious examples of this crime. Further, your moral culpability is reduced to some extent by your psychological condition at the time of the driving, and in particular, the decision you made to crash the car while affected by depressive and suicidal thoughts. Any mitigation arising from this is counterbalanced to some extent by the fact that the dangerous nature of the driving was deliberate and undertaken in a residential area, with consequent risk to others.
Viewed objectively, the dangerous driving deserves the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment. I think also that the offence of unlicensed driving deserves similar punishment. Unlicensed driving is a serious offence. The safety of persons lawfully using or near the road is dependent upon the proper operation of the driver licensing system. Repeated acts of unlicensed driving undermine that system. However, although your conduct deserves imprisonment, I have been persuaded in this case to wholly suspend the sentence. The purpose of the suspension of the sentence is to give you an opportunity to actually avoid serving the sentence and to encourage and support a process of ongoing counselling and therapy. In arriving at this conclusion, I have taken into account your early plea of guilty, the fact that, as far as I am aware, you have not committed any serious prior offences in the past seven years, and the psychological evidence. In addition to the opinion expressed about the contribution of your mental health to the commission of the crime, the psychiatrist also expresses the view that you would find time in prison particularly onerous because of your mental health, and that time in custody would be likely to lead to a decline in your mental health. This is also a relevant factor.
The orders I make are as follows:
1 You are convicted of the crime and offences to which you have pleaded guilty.
2 In relation to the crime of dangerous driving and the offence of unlicensed driving, I impose a global sentence of 15 months’ imprisonment. The whole of that sentence will be suspended for a period of two years from today on the following conditions:
(a) That you are not to commit an offence punishable by imprisonment during that period. I advise you that most offences on the statute books are punishable by imprisonment. This means that if you commit such an offence, including another offence of unlicensed driving, within the next two years, you will be in breach of the condition of suspension and will be required to serve the sentence of 15 months’ imprisonment, unless the court is of the opinion that it would be unjust for this to occur, and that would be extremely unlikely that the court would form that opinion.
(b) That you will be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. You must comply with this condition for a period of 12 months. That period will commence from today. The court notes that the conditions referred to in s 24(5B) of the Sentencing Act apply to this condition. The following special conditions will also be included in the order:
(i) you must, during the operational period of the order, attend educational and other programs as directed by a probation officer;
(ii) you must, during the operational period of the order, submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer.
3 Further in relation to those offences, that is, the crime of dangerous driving and unlicensed driving, I impose a global disqualification from driving for a period of two years and six months, and that will commence from today.
4 In relation to the offence of failing to comply with the duties of a driver involved in a crash, you will pay a fine of $400 within 28 days