Criminal law: September 2019

R v Fangaloka [2019] NSWCCA 173

Intensive Correction Orders – rehabilitation – competing authorities

In this decision the Court of Criminal Appeal (‘CCA’) has revisited the Intensive Correction Order (‘ICO’) regime. The decision resets the priority that community safety and rehabilitation should take in the sentencing process and determines that those aspects of the case are not to be given primacy over the other purposes of sentencing. 

The respondent (this was a Crown appeal) pleaded guilty to offences of robbery in company, assault occasioning actual bodily harm (in company), and a common assault on a Form 1. He and a co-offender visited the victims’ home to demand money; the facts imply this was a reprisal for reporting an earlier incident to the police. The offenders demanded money from the first victim, and the respondent threatened him with a Stanley knife. That victim started screaming for help and was punched twice to the face. Another victim also started screaming for help and was punched five to six times by the co-offender. The co-offender took cash from the second victim’s wallet, then went over and also punched the first victim. The offenders ran out the door with some more of the victims’ property – but not before the co-offender threw a couple more punches at a third victim for good measure. In the District Court, the respondent was sentenced to a 2-year ICO with conditions including 250 hours community service and a requirement that he abstain from drugs. The Crown appealed the leniency of the sentence.