STATE OF TASMANIA v JASON ALFRED SCHEMBRI 23 FEBRUARY 2023
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE BLOW CJ
Mr Schembri has pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving and to two summary charges that I will deal with under s 385A of the Criminal Code – charges of driving whilst disqualified and evading police. He committed these offences on 11 November 2021.
A magistrate disqualified him from driving during January 2021 on two charges of driving with an illicit drug present in his oral fluid. Each of those charges related to the presence of THC.
Mr Schembri lives in New Norfolk. He is known to the police there. On the morning in question police officers noticed him driving along Cox Avenue with two children in his car. They knew he was a disqualified driver. They were travelling in the opposite direction along Cox Avenue. They indicated that they required him to pull over, but he did not stop. The officers made a U-turn and followed him. He accelerated and drove at an excessive speed through the streets of New Norfolk. He drove through a roundabout without braking or slowing down. He drove along Fairfax Terrace at about 100 Km/h where the speed limit is 50 Km/h. He drove through a school zone where the posted speed limit is 40 Km/h at about 80 Km/h. He overtook two vehicles, forcing them to pull over to avoid his vehicle. When making a right turn he braked so hard that the wheels of the vehicle locked. When making that turn he failed to give way to a pedestrian who was crossing the road. The police ceased pursuit in order to end a dangerous situation. The vehicle was located and seized a short time later.
Mr Schembri was arrested the following day and taken to the Bridgewater Police Station where he participated in a video recorded interview and made substantial admissions.
Mr Schembri was 36 years old when he committed these offences and is now 37. He has a variety of prior convictions, including seven for driving whilst disqualified, seven for driving while unlicensed, one for driving when his licence was suspended, and one for negligent driving in 2003. He has been sentenced to community service and given wholly suspended sentences of imprisonment on several occasions, but has never been sent to prison.
Mr Schembri was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as a child. About nine years ago he was diagnosed with both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He takes medication for those conditions.
He is the full-time career of two young children. Their mother left him about six years ago. He has three other children who were born during an earlier relationship. They do not live with him. He lives in a rented house in New Norfolk. On the morning in question it was cold, and he made an impulsive decision to drive the two children to school, about one kilometre from his home. They usually walk. He had kept his car. He panicked when the police tried to stop him.
When this matter came before me last year I ordered a home detention assessment report. I was very concerned about the impact of a possible prison sentence on Mr Schembri’s two youngest children. Apparently they have had very little contact with their mother since she left them, and that is the result of her use of drugs. A probation officer has reported that Mr Schembri is considered unsuitable for a home detention order for two reasons. It is considered that the restrictive nature of a home detention order could create difficulties in caring for the children, and that such an order might place too great a strain on Mr Schembri. However he is considered suitable for an order requiring community service, and in need of a high level of intervention during a period of supervised probation.
There is legislation that requires me to impose a separate penalty on the charge of evading police, and to disqualify Mr Schembri from driving for at least two years on that charge. In the circumstances, I think the most appropriate course is for me to impose two wholly suspended sentences of imprisonment, and to make orders requiring some community service and supervised probation, as well as a driving disqualification.
Jason Alfred Schembri, I convict you on all charges. On the charge of evading police (count 2 on complaint 326/22), I sentence you to one month’s imprisonment, wholly suspended on condition that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of 18 months. On that charge I also disqualify you from driving for a period of 2 years from today.
On the charges of dangerous driving and driving whilst disqualified. I sentence you to 9 months’ imprisonment, wholly suspended on conditions that you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of 18 months, and that you perform community service as ordered today. On those two charges I make a community correction order, for an operative period of 18 months from today, with special conditions that, during that period:
- You must complete and satisfactorily perform 75 hours’ community service as directed by a probation officer or a supervisor.
- You must submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by that probation officer.
- You must attend and take part in any programs that a probation officer requires you to attend.
- You must undertake any training that a probation officer requires you to undertake.
- You must submit to medical, psychological or psychiatric assessment or treatment as directed by a probation officer.