STATE OF TASMANIA v CAMERON ROBERT MONKS 1 DECEMBER 2023
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Mr Monks has pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving and to two other charges – evading police and driving with an illicit drug in his oral fluid. I am dealing with those two summary offences under s 385A of the Criminal Code.
The charges relate to events that occurred on the night of Friday 28 October 2022. At that time Mr Monks was 19 years old and the holder of a provisional driver’s licence. He was driving a vehicle in Cambridge after smoking some cannabis. A police officer drove towards him in a marked police vehicle in a side street named Cherokee Drive. Mr Monks panicked, made a U-turn, and sped away. The officer activated his emergency lights and sirens, indicating to Mr Monks that he should stop, but he drove away at high speeds.
He drove about 23kms over the next half hour before police officers managed to stop him. Initially he drove onto Kennedy Drive and then onto the Tasman Highway towards Sorell. Just past the Hobart Airport he made a U-turn and returned along the Tasman Highway to the Mornington roundabout. From there he travelled along Cambridge Road and Pass Road, and then through Rokeby, detouring into some residential streets at one stage. Road spikes were deployed on the South Arm Highway at two places. His tyres were punctured in the vicinity of Ralph Terrace but he still continued to drive. Eventually he slowed and stopped. At the end he was having difficulty steering the vehicle. He had two passengers, and one of them was yelling at him to stop. As well as travelling at dangerous speeds Mr Monks made turns without indicating, overtook a vehicle without indicating, travelled on the wrong side of Cambridge Road, drove through a red light, and failed to stop when pursued by a marked police van with its lights and sirens activated. The roads were wet. It was raining. There was a moderate amount of traffic on the roads.
After Mr Monks stopped his vehicle he was arrested and cautioned. He cooperated with the police and made admissions. In particular he admitted that he had been smoking cannabis, and that he had driven through roadworks at about 100 Km/h.
Mr Monks is now 20 years old. He does not have a bad criminal record. He was ordered to perform 21 hours’ community service for offences committed against a police officer in 2022, fined for speeding later that year, and fined this year for a hooning offence committed in August of last year. He has recently completed a period of six months driving disqualification imposed as a result of that offence.
Mr Monks is single. He lives with his parents. He has full-time employment. He went through an unhappy period of his life in 2022 after being retrenched by an impecunious employer very close to the end of his second year of a carpentry apprenticeship. He became unemployed, became estranged from his parents, suffered from depression, started taking drugs, and lived an itinerant homeless life, sometimes couch surfing. He ended up spending two weeks in hospital. He was prescribed anti-depressant and anti-psychotic medication. He became reconciled with his parents. He now sees his general practitioner and a psychologist at regular intervals. He has been in his current employment for about six months, and works six days per week. His counsel told me that he had been drug free for four months, and had returned to participation in sport.
A probation officer has assessed him as unsuitable for court-ordered community service but has recommended that I make a community correction order with provision for at least 12 months’ supervision by a probation officer.
I will sentence him separately in relation to each of the three offences. I will fine him and disqualify him from driving in relation to the charges of driving with THC in his system and evading the police. On the charge of dangerous driving I will impose a short wholly suspended prison sentence and make the recommended community correction order.
Mr Monks, if you get into any more trouble in the next 18 months, there is a chance that you will be sent to prison.
I convict you on all charges. On the charge of driving with an illicit drug in your oral fluid, I order you to pay a fine of $780 within 28 days and disqualify you from driving for six months from today. On the charge of evading police I order you to pay a fine of $3,900 within 28 days and disqualify you from driving for an additional period of 2 years. On the charge of dangerous driving, I sentence you to 2 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of 18 months, and I make a community correction order, to operate for 12 months from today, with special conditions that (a) you must during that period submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by the probation officer; and (b) you must during that period submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer.