STATE OF TASMANIA v JAKE WELLS 10 DECEMBER 2024
COMMENTS ON PASSING SENTENCE PEARCE J
Jake Wells, you plead guilty to pervert justice. I also agreed to deal with your plea of guilty to the summary charge of unlawfully possessing a dangerous article in a public place. Just before 1.00 am on Wednesday 8 September 2021 you were walking along the street in Ravenswood with one other man when the police approached you and asked for identification. You knew that there was a warrant out for your arrest and, as a result, you falsely identified yourself as your brother Coby Wells. When you were searched the police found a folding knife in your trouser pocket and three throwing knives in your backpack. Believing that you were Coby Wells, the police told you that a summons would be issued for possession of the knives.
Your deception was only discovered when your brother was arrested a year later for having failed to appear in court on the summons. When the police eventually caught up with you, you admitted you had lied because of the warrant. You were charged and bailed.
You are now aged 30. You are single and you have no children. You have a supportive family with whom you can live following your release. You left school for paid employment after grade 10 but since 2015 you have received social security benefits. There is some prospect of employment early next year. Your record of offending extends back to when you were a youth and is for a range of anti-social behaviour, dishonesty and violence. It is related to problems you have had with abuse of illicit substances over the years. Your most recent serious offending was an assault for which you were sentenced in April 2017 to imprisonment for 18 months, nine months of which was suspended. In 2019 you were made subject to a community correction order for possession and use of methylamphetamine. On 11 October this year you were sentenced by a magistrate to imprisonment for 15 days from 27 September 2024 for destroying property and multiple breaches of bail. Any sentence I impose must therefore commence on 11 October 2024. You pleaded guilty at an early stage, but the since then proceedings have been delayed by repeated failures to answer your bail until you were arrested and remanded in custody. You are not to be punished for breaches of bail but it makes clear your absence of remorse and tends to suggest a continuing disregard for the law.
Perverting justice is regarded as serious because it undermines the integrity of the justice system. Persons who are convicted of the crime are almost always sentenced to imprisonment, not only for punishment, but to send a message to those who might be tempted to act as you did that prison is the likely outcome. In your case, you acted as you did to avoid arrest. It was a spontaneous act and did not, as is sometimes the case, involve forged documents or threats. However, although you were ultimately apprehended, it was not before you put the investigating police to a lot of trouble and caused your brother to be arrested for an offence he did not commit. The seriousness of the possession of these knives should also not be overlooked. The serious risk of the use of such weapons for a violent purpose is a matter of increasing concern in the community and there was no innocent reason for you to have been in possession of those weapons.
Sentencing was delayed so I could obtain a pre-sentence report. You are suitable for supervision on your release and I think you and the community would benefit from such an order. Because your compliance with past community based orders has not been good I will also monitor your compliance.
Jake Wells, you are convicted on both counts on complaint 34718/22. On count 2, possessing the knives, you are sentenced to imprisonment for two weeks from 11 October 2024. On count 1, pervert justice, you are sentenced to imprisonment for three months, also from 11 October 2024, one month of which is suspended for 18 months from your release. It is a condition of that order that while it is in force you commit no offence punishable by imprisonment. If you breach that condition you will be required to serve the one month suspended term unless that is unjust. I impose a further condition that you will, for the 18 month operational period of the order, be subject to the supervision of a probation officer. The core conditions of that order will be specified in the order you will be given and include that you report to a probation officer at the office of Community Corrections, 111 Cameron Street in Launceston, within three clear days of your release and thereafter as required by the probation officer, that you 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 or employment. I impose special conditions that you must:
- during the operational period of the order, submit to the supervision of a probation officer as required by the probation 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;
- if you are directed to do so by a probation officer, you are to attend, participate in and complete the EQUIPS addiction program; and
- appear again before this court in Cameron Street Launceston at 2.15 pm on 21 February 2025 and at such date thereafter as you may be directed to appear so I may obtain a report from a probation officer about your compliance with the terms of this order.
If you breach any of those conditions you may be brought back to court and re-sentenced.