Case Study

Our client was a young man (aged 18) at the time of the offending. He had never been to prison before.  He was facing a charge with a maximum sentence of imprisonment of 14 years.  Our client sought a sentence indication for one charge of aggravated robbery and one charge of assault with intent to rob.  He accepted the sentence indication which was a starting point of 5 years and 6 months’ imprisonment.

Most people including the Crown submitted that imprisonment was inevitable.  Prior to his sentence indication, we obtained a place for him at a trusted rehabilitation facility, allowing him to undertake rehabilitation and address previous trauma.

Discounts were given for cultural and psychiatric factors, youth, rehabilitation and addiction, time spent on EM bail and remorse and restorative justice for which our client and the victim met and had a meaningful conference.

Bloem Law encouraged our client to get into rehabilitation early, so that he could maximise the discounts available to him.   We needed to achieve a sentence to two years or below in order to be receive home detention.  We made the case that home detention would be better suited than imprisonment so that his progress and his future would not be disrupted by prison.  We also gathered as much material as possible about his progress to address the legal tests.  We arranged for numerous people to speak at his sentencing to demonstrate the depth of support he now had for the future.  We aimed to show the Judge that it was important for his rehabilitation journey to continue in the community.  This made all the difference. The Judge came in with the intention to sentence him to imprisonment, however after seeing his progress at the rehabilitation facility, she sentenced him to 10 months home detention.

We were able to make the case that not sending this young man to jail was the best outcome not only for him but in the long term interests of the community.  This had a huge impact on his life.  The rehabilitation journey that he was on resulted in a huge change to his presentation and demeanor.  He held his head up at Court.   We encouraged him to speak at his sentencing and address the Judge.  He took this offer up and spoke with self-respect and pride about his achievements in rehabilitation. It was an exceptional result as we were able to help in keeping a young man out of prison and steer him in the right direction for the future.