STATE OF TASMANIA v AARON LEE WILLIAMS 29 OCTOBER 2026
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Aaron Williams, you plead guilty to stealing. Around 3.30 pm on 25 October 2025 the complainant, Jackson Coker-Gough, was waiting in the driver seat of his car in the car park of a supermarket in Deloraine while his partner was shopping. You were there with another man. You had ill feeling towards the complainant arising from a disputed sale of a motorcycle years earlier, so you decided to approach him. It was not a polite approach. You ran to his car and tried to open the driver door, but he was scared and drove away with you running after the car. He returned soon afterwards to collect his partner, but you and your companion were still looking for him. Your associate pursued him and you followed, yelling out. As the complainant was standing near the entrance to the supermarket your companion seriously assaulted him by picking him up, throwing him to the ground and kicking his head. While the complainant was on the ground, obviously injured and dazed, you took the opportunity to steal his wallet and phone which had fallen from his pocket. You walked away leaving the complainant lying there. The complainant got up and tried to follow you to retrieve his belongings, but you had gone.
As you left you threw the phone over the fence, although the police later found and returned it to the complainant. You say that you also threw the wallet over the fence, but it was never recovered. It had about $650 in cash inside as well as all of his cards and other personal items.
You are now aged 27. You grew up on the north west coast but moved away from home when you were 14. You experienced long periods of homelessness and disadvantage. However, you are now in a relationship and have stable accommodation. You receive Centrelink benefits. You have some prior convictions for dishonesty, a common assault and for some other anti-social offending, but none are particularly serious and coincide with your reduced circumstances between 2013 and 2020. Since then, there has been only a drug related driving offence. You are not charged with the assault, and so it cannot be an aggravating factor for the stealing. However, it is aggravating that you took advantage of the complainant’s injury and incapacity to callously steal from him. That increases the level of moral culpability associated with your dishonesty. The loss of cards and personal documents in addition to the cash was particularly stressful and inconvenient for the complainant.
It is in your favour that you pleaded guilty. You have accepted responsibility for what you did. You were originally charged with a much more serious crime. I was asked to impose a fine, but you will have difficulty paying it and I think that community service is the more appropriate sentence.
You are convicted on indictment 292/2026, count 3. I make a compensation order in favour of Jackson Coker-Gough in a sum of $650. You have 28 days to pay that amount but you can apply to enter into a repayment arrangement. I make a community corrections order for a period of nine months from today. The core conditions of that order will be specified in the order you will be given and include that you not commit an offence punishable by imprisonment, that you report to and comply with the directions of a probation officer, that you must not leave Tasmania without permission and that you must notify of any change of address. I impose a special condition that you must, within the nine month operational period of the order satisfactorily perform 35 hours of community service, as directed by a probation officer or a supervisor. If you breach any of those conditions you may be brought back to court and re-sentenced.