A WARRNAMBOOL County Court judge who warned members of the judiciary about overturning local magistrates’ decisions has backflipped – twice.
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Judge Mark Dean made the comment last week when he reimposed the same four-month jail sentence on a cannabis dealer.
He said judges on regional circuits should be careful about overturning sentences of local magistrates, because the magistrate who imposed the original sentence was highly experienced and understood local issues.
However, two appellants jailed for offences have since walked free from his court after successful appeals.
In the most serious case, Warrnambool thief Michael Couzens, 45, of Timor Street, was jailed for 83 days in Warrnambool Magistrates Court on June 26 after stealing petrol worth $120 from a rural property near Horsham.
That offending breached a suspended jail sentence imposed after Couzens sent a threatening letter to his former partner, who left him for another man while he was in jail.
Judge Dean decided that exceptional circumstances did exist which would allow Couzens to avoid serving the suspended sentence.
Those circumstances included that the original offending was committed some time ago, the new offending involved different offences, Couzens should have been charged while he was in custody and the breach offending was committed a week before the suspended sentence expired.
Couzens, who has an extensive criminal record, was convicted and fined $750 and ordered to pay $120 compensation for the petrol.
Steve Whiten, 36, of Portland, was jailed for three weeks and fined $1000 in the Portland Magistrate Court on June 30 after pleading guilty to a range of offences, including abusing police and hospital staff who were trying to help him.
He was charged with threatening to inflict serious injury, causing damage, acting prejudicial to the good running of a police jail, possessing and using cannabis and committing a serious offence while on bail.
On appeal Judge Dean imposed a $1400 fine but dropped the imprisonment.
He heard Whiten had not been in trouble for 12 years and had consumed a bottle of whiskey on the night of his confrontation with police.
Whiten has the sole care of his autistic son and the judge said he was reluctant to put the appellant in prison.
