STATE OF TASMANIA v SHARN LUKE REHRMANN 12 JUNE 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Sharn Rehrmann, you plead guilty to robbery. Just after 5.00 pm on 21 June 2024 you walked into the BP service station in Youngtown. The complainant, a male then aged 24, was working behind the counter. You approached him and asked for cigarettes and a lighter. When he asked you to pay you told him to just give you the cigarettes or you would grab a glass bottle and slit his throat. The complainant was frightened and pressed the duress alarm. He asked if you had any money and told you that he had no choice but to call the police. However, you again threatened to use a glass bottle to slit his throat. He gave you the cigarettes and a lighter and told you to leave. You left the store but were found and arrested a short time later.
When you were interviewed you largely admitted what you had done. You told the police that you had waited outside smoking the cigarettes until they arrived.
I was given information about your personal circumstances by your counsel and in a pre-sentence report prepared by a probation officer. You are now aged 31. According to the pre-sentence report you have been diagnosed with a number of mental health conditions including ADD, ADHD, and anxiety and depressive disorders. These have been managed by your general practitioner and by a psychologist. However your life has been marred by abuse of illicit drugs and alcohol. In about 2013 you began to use drugs on a recreational and social basis but by 2017 your use had escalated and you began using methylamphetamine. You had no relevant criminal record until, on 4 October 2021 you went into the same service station wearing a motor cycle helmet. You demanded the money from the till and produced a hand gun and pointed it at the male attendant. For that armed robbery you were sentenced on 1 December 2022 to imprisonment for two years, one year of which was suspended for 18 months from your release. You were eligible to apply for parole after having served six months of the operative term. The crime for which you are now to be sentenced was not committed during the period for which that sentence was suspended, but the period had just expired, and you were warned about the seriousness of such crimes when you were sentenced on that occasion.
The 2021 armed robbery was a crime driven by addiction to methylamphetamine. At that time you had no relevant prior convictions and so a sentence was imposed which gave weight to your rehabilitation. At that time you ceased using drugs but there have since been relapses including in 2024 following a decline in your mental health. At the time of this crime you were living with your mother, but you argued about your alcohol and drug use. You consumed a large amount of alcohol and went looking for methylamphetamine, although you did not use any. You claim to have devised a plan to have yourself taken into custody to remove yourself from this environment. It was characterised by your counsel as a cry for help. That may be so but it ignores the potential impact of your crime on the victim. There is no evidence that your mental health conditions are relevant to sentence.
You are single with no children. Mitigation arises from your plea of guilty. You have a supportive family and you have demonstrated the ability to maintain employment as a landscaper. You plan to, on your release, live interstate with your brother and mother, and there is a good prospect of responsible employment. The plan is supported by community corrections if it can be achieved who will also provide support in relation to alcohol and drug use and management of your mental health. The material before me suggests that there remains a good chance that you can be a responsible and productive member of society. Your rehabilitation is still material but, in light of the need for punishment, deterrence and protection of the community, the weight to be attached to your rehabilitation is now less. In an attempt to balance those competing considerations I will, instead of ordering eligibility for parole, again suspend part of the sentence but on condition that you be subject to supervision in the community.
Robberies of this type are serious principally because of the potential impact on victims. You were not armed on this occasion, but you threatened serious violence. The victim impact statement of the service station operator describes just the type of psychological impact which is to be expected. He, like almost every victim of a crime of this nature, was traumatised. Many victims suffer from lifelong psychological symptoms. Your crime was committed against a person who was working in the type of business which is an easy target, and in which such crimes are commonly committed. Very many such robberies are committed by persons who are motivated by reasons associated with alcohol and illicit drug use. It may explain the crime but does not lessen the seriousness of it. It may well add to the need for general deterrence so that others may think twice before acting in this way.
You are convicted of robbery. I make a compensation order in favour of the proprietors of the BP Service Station at Youngtown in the sum of $44.57. You have 28 days to pay that sum. You are sentenced to imprisonment for two years from 8 May 2026. I order that you not be eligible to apply for parole. I suspend 12 months of that term for 18 months from your release on the following conditions:
- you are not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment while the order is in force. If you breach that condition you will be required to serve the term unless that is unjust.
- during the operational period of the order, that is, 18 months from your release, you will be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. The conditions referred to in s 24(5B) of the Sentencing Act apply to this condition and will be set out in the order you will be given. These include that you must report to a probation officer at the office of Community Corrections in Launceston within three clear working days of you release, you must submit to supervision and comply with the directions given by your probation officer, you must not leave Tasmania without permission and you must notify of any change of address.
- in addition to the core conditions, the order will also include the following special conditions that you must, during the operational period of the order:
- submit to the supervision of a Community Corrections officer as required by that officer;
- attend educational and other programs, undergo assessment and treatment for alcohol or drug dependency, submit to testing for alcohol or drug use and submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer;
- attend and complete the EQUIPS addiction program if directed to do so by a probation officer.