STATE OF TASMANIA v TONY LEIGH McMASTER 18 APRIL 2019
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BRETT J
Mr McMaster, you have pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully damaging property.
You committed the crime on 20 May 2018. You had been drinking alcohol in a social situation for a considerable period of time, and were heavily affected by alcohol. For a reason which you now cannot remember nor explain, you entered the Jackson Motor Company car yard in Launceston at about 3 am and over the following 30 minutes or so you inflicted damage on 20 new vehicles located in the car yard. The total cost of repair of the damaged vehicles is $36,459.77. You only desisted when your activities were interrupted by a security patrol.
I accept that you were heavily intoxicated and have no recollection nor explanation for your conduct. The fact that an offence is committed under the influence of alcohol, which has been voluntarily consumed, does not provide any mitigation, but that explanation may be important to considerations such as personal deterrence and the potential for rehabilitation. It assumes some importance in this case.
You are 30 years of age. You have one child, who now lives with your former partner. Your criminal history consists of traffic offences, including a number of serious offences of disqualified driving. However, there is nothing involving conduct of the same nature as that in this case nor have you committed any other offence since 2010. You have a strong employment history and a reference from your current employer speaks very highly of your character. It seems that your criminal conduct in this case was completely out of character. I have been provided with a psychological report which notes some quite serious underlying psychological conditions which have their origin in parental neglect in your early childhood. However, these do not seem to be related to the conduct in question, except that they may help to explain why you were drinking to excess on this night. You claim to not drink alcohol regularly. On this day, you had travelled to Launceston to have dinner with a friend, but you were experiencing stress as a result of an interaction with your ex-partner before you left your home. Your ability to deal with stress of this nature is adversely affected by your psychological condition, but this does not explain your aberrant conduct. There is nothing in this case which engages any of the Verdins principles.
I accept that you are extremely remorseful. You have consented to a compensation order. I note also that you indicated a plea of guilty to the charge at an early time.
Wanton damage of this nature requires commensurate punishment. You caused significant damage to many vehicles held by a commercial business for no reason at all. General deterrence is an important sentencing consideration. Although you have no recollection of nor explanation for your conduct, you committed a serious crime and must deal with the consequences. I intend to impose a sentence of imprisonment. However, because of your early plea of guilty, lack of significant prior convictions, and the one-off nature of the conduct, I will wholly suspend the sentence. In order to maintain the punitive effect of the order, you will be required to perform some community service.
Accordingly, the orders I make are as follows:
1 You are convicted of the crime to which you have pleaded guilty.
2 You are sentenced to a term of 8 months’ imprisonment, which will be wholly suspended for a period of 18 months on the following conditions:
(a) You are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment during that period.
(b) You will perform 161 hours of community service. You will be required to report to community corrections in order to commence the work within 3 days of today.
I make a compensation order in favour of Jackson Motor Company in the sum of $36,459.77.