Staker v R 9 July 2004

The applicant was sentenced in the Darwin Supreme Court to an aggregate sentence of 4 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 2 years and 3 months following his pleas of guilty to one count of robbery of a pharmacy and one count of stealing drugs from the same pharmacy.

The applicant sought leave to appeal against sentence on the grounds that (i) the sentence was manifestly excessive, (ii) the sentence was not duly proportionate to the gravity of the offending and (iii) the sentencing judge gave insufficient weight to the applicant’s drug dependency, the causes of that dependency and the applicant’s recent efforts to address his drug dependency.

The applicant did not apply to have his application reheard by the Court of Criminal Appeal pursuant to s.429(2) of the Criminal Code.