STATE OF TASMANIA v TIMOTHY SHAUN VAN DEN BOSCH 15 AUGUST 2022
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE JAGO J
Mr Van Den Bosch, you have been found guilty by a jury of one count of assault and you have pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving. In respect to the assault, I am required to sentence you in accordance with the verdict of the jury and the facts for sentence largely follow from that verdict. On 27 November 2019, you were at the Shell service station in Smithton. The complainant, Mr Beech-Jones, was also there. At one point, you were in your vehicle on the apron of the service station and Mr Beech-Jones approached you. It seems there had been an earlier altercation between you and a member of Mr Beech-Jones’ family concerning your partner’s son, resulting in some tension between your family and his family. I accept, for sentencing purposes, that when Mr Beech-Jones approached you he spoke to you in a pointed manner and challenged you about the earlier altercation. A verbal exchange followed. Mr Beech-Jones then walked away. I observed the CCTV footage from the Shell service station, which was tendered on the trial. I am satisfied that as Mr Beech-Jones was walking away, with his back to your vehicle, you revved the engine and accelerated towards him. On hearing the approach of your vehicle, Mr Beech-Jones tried to move out of the way. He was unable to do so in time and your vehicle made contact with the right side of his body. I accept his hands made contact with the bonnet of your vehicle but I am satisfied that occurred in the context of him endeavouring to push himself away from your vehicle to avoid being struck. I sentence on the basis that there was an intentional application of force to the body of Mr Beech-Jones. I accept the contact was relatively slight, Mr Beech-Jones maintained his footing and was not impacted to any significant degree by the vehicle. Nevertheless, it was a very foolish and potentially dangerous thing to do. Mr Beech-Jones had some general soreness after the incident, but no injury which required medical intervention.
What happened next, however, is most concerning. Mr Beech-Jones got into his vehicle and attempted to drive away. You reversed your vehicle and attempted to block the path of Mr Beech-Jones. He was able to swerve around you and drove out onto Brittons Road. You followed him out of the service station. As you did so, you accelerated harshly and slid your car sideways, although not for any great distance. Mr Beech-Jones drove down Brittons Road and turned right onto the Bass Highway. You followed. As the two vehicles were travelling along the Bass Highway, you entered into the lane of oncoming traffic and drove for a short period of time alongside Mr Beech-Jones. You then swerved your vehicle into his vehicle, impacting his driver’s side door. Both vehicles were travelling at about 80 kilometres per hour when you did this. You then overtook Mr Beech-Jones’s vehicle, pulled in front of it and suddenly applied your brakes. Mr Beech-Jones had to swerve and move into the lane of oncoming traffic in order to avoid a collision. He then pulled back in front of your vehicle. As the vehicles approached the roundabout at the intersection of Scotchtown Road and Nelson Street, you again moved your vehicle into the lane of oncoming traffic, cut the corner of the roundabout, and travelled through the roundabout on the incorrect side of the road. There was a log truck manoeuvring the roundabout at the time. You crossed closely in front of the log truck and the log truck driver was forced to take evasive action. Again, I have had the benefit of watching the dashcam footage taken from the log truck and tendered on the trial. Your behaviour at the roundabout involved considerable risk. It was fortunate the truck driver reacted so sensibly. Shortly after entering Nelson Street, you pulled your vehicle over to the left hand side. You waited until both the log truck and Mr Beech-Jones had travelled past you before again pulling out behind Mr Beech-Jones. You then drove very closely behind his vehicle along Nelson Street in an act of “tail gating”. At one point, in the dashcam footage you can be seen to have your arm out the window holding something. Both the truck driver and Mr Beech-Jones gave evidence that you were holding a knife. I accept their evidence as to that. I accept that as you drove alongside Mr Beech-Jones on the Bass Highway you waved the knife towards him. Your use of the knife in that manner was consistent with your generally aggressive behaviour on this day. Mr Beech-Jones drove to the Smithton Police Station and reported the incident. You were subsequently located at your residence and arrested. You participated in a record of interview. You admitted there had been an altercation between yourself and Mr Beech-Jones at the service station. You admitted you accelerated your vehicle towards him, but denied any contact had been made. You admitted following Mr Beech-Jones in your vehicle with the intention of getting him to pull over so that you could fight. You denied driving into the driver’s side of his car and denied that you had broken any road rules. You admitted that you were angry at the time of the incident.
You are 39 years of age. You were 37 at the time of incident. You have a moderate record of criminal offending, which includes, amongst other things, several traffic offences. You have also been convicted of matters of common assault, although I accept they were relatively minor in nature. You have not previously been convicted of any serious driving offences. There are some aggravating features to your driving. You carried out dangerous manoeuvres on a highway including side-swiping Mr Beech-Jones and further dangerous manoeuvres within a town, in particular at the roundabout. Your driving behaviour went on for about three kilometres. You were clearly very angry whilst driving, which is relevant to the risk you posed to other road users. You only desisted from your driving when it was obvious Mr Beech-Jones was going to the police station. I take into account that there is no suggestion that you drove at excessive speeds throughout the course of driving. Nevertheless, your behaviour towards Mr Beech-Jones must have been most concerning to him. Driving of this nature and involving this level of danger, poses considerable risk to the public. It is most fortunate that there does not appear to have been a lot of traffic on the road and your driving behaviour did not lead to more serious consequences. That, of course, does not alleviate the risk that you posed to other road users. All of these matters mean that general deterrence is an important sentencing consideration. That is also clear from the fact that Parliament has made dangerous driving an indictable crime.
I take into account the fact that you pleaded guilty to the dangerous driving charge. It does show insight and an acceptance of the wrongfulness of your behaviour, although I note much of the utilitarian benefit of the plea has been lost because of the need for a trial in respect to the assault charge.
In respect to your background, I note that you are in a long term relationship. There are children to the relationship that live with you and your partner. You have employment. You are employed as a farm manager and have held that position for a number of years now. You are well regarded in that employment. You experienced a highly traumatic upbringing. Both your father and step-father regularly physically and emotionally abused you. When you were approximately eight years of age, you were abducted. You were taken from your school, forced into a motor vehicle and taken away. You were sexually assaulted during the abduction. You have never had the benefit of appropriate trauma counselling. Subsequently, you were removed from the home of your mother and step-father by Child Services. You moved throughout various foster homes, before eventually being taken into the care of your paternal grandparents. You remained with them until you were 21, at which point you relocated to Tasmania. You have suffered with mental health conditions for a number of years. You have been diagnosed variously with borderline personality disorder, depression, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and bi-polar disorder. At the time this incident occurred, you were experiencing a significant decline in your mental health. Whilst you had been working on and off with various mental health professionals, there had been difficulties in stabilising your medication. Since the incident occurred, you have sought further assistance. I am told the medication you are now on keeps you much calmer and your mental health has stabilised.
Whilst not all aspects of your driving behaviour fall towards the upper range of seriousness, as I have already noted, there were certainly some serious aspects to your driving. In my view, your driving behaviour can be distinguished from the more serious cases, particularly because high speeds were not involved, but at the same time it could not be said, to fall within the least serious category of offending. General deterrence remains, in my view, a most important sentencing consideration. Because offences such as this typically attract periods of imprisonment, even in circumstances where a defendant is without a poor history of prior driving offences, I had you assessed as to your suitability for home detention. You are considered unsuitable for a period of home detention, largely because of your complex mental health diagnosis. In my view, the only remaining sentencing option that adequately reflects the objective seriousness of your offending is a period of imprisonment. The use of a vehicle as a weapon and incidents of road rage such as this, must be condemned by the courts. I have given very careful consideration as to whether there is a proper basis to suspend the period of imprisonment I intend to impose. I have determined that there is. You have, since this incident occurred, sought further assistance in respect to your mental health. You continue to maintain your employment and I am told will keep that employment, even with the imposition of the inevitable lengthy disqualification period that will be imposed. You have the ongoing support of your partner. You are now in a far more stable position than when these crimes occurred. You recognise the need to remain vigilant in respect to your mental health care and the home detention assessment report I received suggests that a community based supervision order is available to assist you in that regard. Taking all these matters into account, I am satisfied it is appropriate to suspend the period of imprisonment.
I make the following orders: you are convicted of the crimes of assault and dangerous driving. I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. The whole of that period of imprisonment will be suspended on condition that you not commit any offence punishable by imprisonment for a period of two years. You are disqualified from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for a period of two years. I also make a community corrections order for a period of 12 months from today. The core conditions of that order will be set out in a written document provided to you. You are required to comply with all of those conditions. I also impose a special condition that you must submit to the supervision of a probation officer for that 12 month period and you must participate in programmes and/or engage in counselling and/or attend at and participate in psychological or psychiatric treatment as directed by a probation officer. You are required to report to Community Corrections, Reece House, Burnie by close of business tomorrow. Mr Van den Bosch you must clearly understand that if you are foolish enough to re-offend and breach the terms of the suspended sentence, an actual period of imprisonment is all but inevitable.