STATE OF TASMANIA v GAVIN THOMAS MIDSON 7 FEBRUARY 2020
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Gavin Midson, you plead guilty to offences of dishonesty – three counts of aggravated burglary, three counts of stealing, one count of stealing a firearm part and two counts of receiving stolen property. The crimes were committed on three separate occasions.
On 13 June 2017 the police searched the home in which you were living in Kings Meadows. They found a phone which had been stolen from a taxi driver in 2015, an oven stolen from a partially renovated home in November 2016, jewellery stolen from a home in Riverside in May 2017, furniture stolen from a home in West Launceston in May 2017, and cooking appliances, heat pumps and a laundry sink stolen from two units in Riverside overnight between 8 and 9 June 2017. The police also found a safe which was taken away and opened. Inside was jewellery stolen from the Antiques Fair in the Albert Hall overnight between 10 and 11 June 2017. By your plea you admit that you were in possession of all of those items and that, in each case, you had received the property knowing it to be stolen. The total value was in excess of $22,000. You were arrested on 22 June 2017 but, when you were interviewed, you denied any dishonesty, despite strong evidence to the contrary. For example, CCTV showed you inside the Albert Hall during the fair with the man who broke in and stole things that same night.
Despite having been arrested for those offences in June 2017, you committed an overnight aggravated burglary of two homes in Riverside on 17 August 2017. You broke into one home by forcing a window and stole watches, coins, personal and electronic items worth a total of about $94,000. You forced a sliding door at the other home and stole jewellery and electrical equipment worth about $7,500. You put the stolen goods in a storage unit you kept at Legana which the police were keeping an eye on. When arrested you again falsely denied your crimes, although you arranged for return of the stolen items. All of the items except for one watch worth about $400 were recovered. Investigations disclosed that you had surveilled the homes you broke into by having a female accomplice cold call or attend those premises.
The final crimes were committed on 19 October 2018, about a year later. On that day you went with another man to a house in West Launceston. You kicked open a door and stole cash, electrical goods and tools, jewellery, fashion bags and a motor vehicle, a 2017 Mazda CX5. Also included in the stolen items was a 12 gauge shotgun, ammunition and the gun safe in which it was stored. The combined value was about $85,000. The police investigation quickly led to evidence of your involvement. Some of the stolen property including the car and the shotgun has been recovered. Other property has not.
These offences involve considerable criminality. Receiving is serious because it encourages theft. For that reason it generally attracts a sentence of imprisonment. The community correctly regards invasion of the home of another as very serious. These were not spontaneous crimes. They involved planning and surveillance of the target properties. Throughout the period of offending you did not co-operate with the police. You continued to offend while on bail and your plea of guilty is late. At least the plea now indicates some willingness to facilitate justice, but the seriousness of the crimes demands a sentence of imprisonment which I would not have suspended.
You are already subject to other sentencing orders. In February 2018 a magistrate ordered that you perform 140 hours of community service for drug and firearm offences. In August 2019 you were sentenced to imprisonment for six weeks wholly suspended for 12 months, and a community corrections order including probation and a further 70 hours of community service. Your compliance and engagement with those orders has been less than perfect but has improved.
Your offending has been driven by addiction to illicit drugs, particularly methylamphetamine. You are now 27. Until you were 19 you had the support of a loving and stable family. However you were introduced to methylamphetamine and quickly became heavily addicted to it. Your family’s attempts to help you with the problems caused by addiction did not succeed. However, you were injured in the course of other offending in March 2019 and, I am told, it has caused you to reflect on your situation. For the first time in years you are not using drugs. You are living with your mother who has sacrificed herself to help you. You have been assessed as suitable for the making of a drug treatment order. If you are to succeed and avoid prison, the level of commitment required of you will be significant and significantly better than you have demonstrated thus far to the community based orders already in place.
I have decided that it is appropriate to make a drug treatment order. The statutory criteria for making the order are satisfied. The assessment report gives some indication that there is hope for rehabilitation. If that can be achieved, and I think a drug treatment order offers the best hope of achieving it, then the community as a whole will benefit. If it does not succeed, prison is almost inevitable.
Gavin Midson you are convicted on each count. I make a compensation order in favour of Matthew Goss in the sum of $400 and Karen Hay in the sum of $1,500. I may only allow you 28 days to pay those amounts. If you require longer can enter into a repayment arrangement. I impose one sentence. I make a drug treatment order pursuant to the Sentencing Act 1997, s 27B. The custodial part of the order is a term of imprisonment for one year and ten months. You are not required to serve all or any of the custodial part of the drug treatment order unless it is activated. It may be activated if you fail to comply with the treatment and supervision part of the order which has the following core conditions:
- you must not, in Tasmania or elsewhere, commit another imprisonable offence;
- you must attend the Magistrates Court of Tasmania, Launceston on a date which will be specified in the order and thereafter attend the Magistrates Court or this Court as and when directed by the court;
- you must report directly to a court diversion officer at Community Corrections, Launceston and in any event within one clear working day of your release;
- you must undergo such treatment of your illicit drug use problem as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers or as from time to time specified by the Magistrates’ Court or this Court;
- you must report to, and accept visits from, your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must, unless there are special circumstances, give your case manager at least two clear working days’ notice before any change of address;
- you must not leave Tasmania except with the permission, granted either generally or in a particular case, of the Magistrates Court or this Court;
- you must comply with all lawful directions of the Magistrates Court or this Court;
- you must comply with all reasonable directions of your case manager and court diversion officers concerning the core conditions and program conditions of this order.
There will be further program conditions of the order that:
- you must submit to random drug testing as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must submit to urinalysis testing as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must submit to oral fluid testing as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must submit to detoxification or other treatment, whether or not residential in nature, as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must not use any illicit drug;
- you must not use any non-prescribed substance;
- you must not use, or associate with anyone who uses, any mood or mind altering substances, synthetic substances or any unidentified substances;
- you must not use any medication unless prescribed to you by a treating medical practitioner, approved by your court diversion officer and in accordance with the medication directions for use;
- you must attend vocational, educational, employment, rehabilitation or other programs or as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must attend counselling and/or treatment as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must submit to medical, psychiatric or psychological treatment as directed by your case manager or court diversion officers;
- you must maintain the use of, and remain contactable by, a mobile phone capable of sending and receiving messages about drug testing, case management and/or counselling appointments from your case manager and court diversion officers; and,
- you must remain contactable at all times;
- you must reside at [address] and not change that address without the approval of your court diversion officer or case managers, the Magistrates Court or this Court.