STATE OF TASMANIA v TAMARA SUE REEVE 18 SEPTEMBER 2020
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Tamara Reeve, you plead guilty to stealing firearms. I also agreed to deal with your plea of guilty to the summary charges of aggravated burglary, burglary and stealing.
During 11 and 12 January 2020 a house and shed at Boat Harbour was broken into twice. The aggravated burglary concerns the house and the burglary concerns the shed. You were responsible for the burglaries, although you were not the only one involved. Your intention was to steal items from inside. Among the things stolen were three firearms, a Ruger .22 long rifle, a Saco .22 250 rifle and a Sportco single barrel shotgun, all removed from a gun safe, and boxes of ammunition. Also stolen were a grinder, a metal toolbox, an electric polisher, a cv shaft, which is part of the drive shaft of an engine, and keys to the gun safe and the house. On 15 January 2020 the police searched the home at Boat Harbour you shared with another person. It is only about 600 metres from the site of the burglary. They found the stolen tool box in a car. You lied and claimed it belonged to your partner, who was then in prison. When you were formally interviewed you again lied, denying any involvement in the burglaries and claiming that you had purchased the tool box at a local tip shop. However, CCTV from the property in which you lived, and another property, made your participation clear. All three stolen firearms were taken by others to the home of Zoe Whiley. That occurred with your agreement in the knowledge that they would be sold on. One of the firearms was found in a vehicle at Ms Whiley’s house in Acton on 12 January 2020. The remaining two were recovered on 3 February 2020 from a car being driven by another man after he tried to evade the police. The shotgun was loaded and he had other ammunition in his pocket. He is a person with a long criminal history including for violence.
You are now aged 32. You have prior convictions including for common assault, alcohol and drug related driving offences, and anti-social behaviour. On 22 September 2017 a magistrate imposed a six week suspended sentence for driving offences, including three counts of driving with an illicit drug in your blood. You breached that suspended sentence by breaching bail. On 18 September 2018 an application was made relating to that breach. On the same day you pleaded guilty to more driving offences, three of which were for driving with an illicit drug in your blood, which pre-dated the earlier sentence. You were also sentenced to another six week wholly suspended sentence and probation, but the earlier suspended sentence was not activated. These offences were committed after the probation had concluded but while the second suspended sentence was still in force. Accordingly, that sentence must be activated unless it is unjust.
I accept that your heavy use of illicit drugs contributed to this offending. At the time these offences were committed you were using methamphetamine intravenously. I also accept that since this crime you have taken significant steps to turn your life around. You say you have ceased intravenous drug use. You seem to have removed yourself from some of your criminal associates. You have stable housing. You have found casual employment and references from your employer and the employment agency speak highly of the efforts you have made. You also currently face charges being dealt with by a magistrate, who ordered an assessment of your suitability for the making of a drug treatment order. For those offences you have been assessed as suitable for a drug treatment order. The community will benefit if your rehabilitation can be achieved, but the chance of your rehabilitation is to be balanced against the need to make clear to you and others the seriousness of your offences, as well as the likely consequences of breaching a suspended sentence.
You are to be sentenced on the basis that you went to the property intending to steal, but, at least on the first occasion, not knowing what you would find. It was also not disputed by the prosecution that it was your associates, not you, who were likely to keep and obtain the benefit of the firearms and other stolen goods. Nevertheless, you went back to the property to steal knowing of the firearms. You had the opportunity to stop but you did not. The value of the stolen goods was not very high, but no doubt they were worth more than that to the owner. Entry into a residential property is a serious invasion of personal and property rights. Stealing firearms is particularly serious because of the strong link between stolen firearms and crimes involving violence and dishonesty. Stolen firearms almost inevitably end up in the hands of criminals, as they did here. Theft of firearms motivated by the need for or use of illicit drugs is all too common.
It is in your favour that you have pleaded guilty. By doing so you have facilitated justice at a time when trials are significantly delayed as a result of the pandemic.
Lenience was extended to you when the first suspended sentence was not activated, but you did not take advantage of it. There is no proper basis to conclude that it is unjust to activate the second suspended sentence. To do so would be to undermine the force of suspended sentences, which are ordinarily meant to be a last chance. You committed serious offences when you were subject to the sentence. A sentence of imprisonment is required for the offences for which I am to sentence you. However, given the steps which have and will be taken to assist your rehabilitation I will wholly suspend that sentence. I do not think that sentencing orders in those terms will preclude the making of a drug treatment order to commence on your release, but that will be a matter for the magistrate. I will make it a special condition of the sentence that you successfully complete any drug treatment order which is made. For the purposes of this order you will be regarded as having successfully completed the drug treatment order if:
- the order is cancelled as a reward under s 27L(1)(a) or (b) of the Sentencing Act 1997; or
- the treatment and supervision part of the order is cancelled by a court on the second anniversary review without activation, at the time of the review, of any part of the custodial part of the order.
The result of that order is that, if you do not fully or substantially comply with the terms of any drug treatment order until it is completed, or if you re-offend, you will not only serve all or some of the custodial part of the drug treatment order, but the sentence I am about to impose as well, unless that is unjust. I will suspend the sentence for a considerable period so it will be hanging over your head for a long time. You are not likely to get a second chance to avoid a significant term of imprisonment.
Tamara Reeve, you are convicted on the indictment and on complaint 51121/20, counts 1, 2 and 3. I order that the firearms recovered by police be returned to Dylan Wilton. I make a compensation order in favour of Mr Wilton in a sum to be determined. I order that the six week suspended sentence of imprisonment imposed on 18 September 2018 is activated and order that you serve that term from today. On the indictment and on those counts on the complaint I impose one sentence. You are sentenced to imprisonment for eight months. I wholly suspend that term for two years and six months from today. It is a condition of that sentence that while it is in force you do not commit another offence punishable by imprisonment. I impose a special condition that you successfully complete any drug treatment order made by a magistrate on charges for which you are currently awaiting sentence, in the terms that I have explained. If you breach that condition you may be brought back to this Court and re-sentenced.