See full judgment: Austlii.
The offender was sentenced following a plea of guilty to 1 count of conspiring to import a commercial quantity of a border controlled drug contrary to ss 11.5(1) and 307.1(1) of the Commonwealth Criminal Code. Offending related to 737.55 kilograms of pure MDMA, 107.64 kilograms of pure cocaine, and 12.04 kilograms of pure methamphetamine. Original sentence imposed 24 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 14 years. Offender appealed on the ground that they have a justifiable sense of grievance arising from the disparity between the sentence imposed on them and that imposed upon co-offender.
Parity: Co-offender’s sentence was reduced from 30 years of imprisonment to 25 years of imprisonment on appeal. The Crown submits that a reduction to co-offender’s sentence, including the reduction of 3 years to the indicative sentence with respect to the common offence, would not, if left to stand, engender a justifiable sense of grievance in offender. The submission should be rejected. It is difficult to see how, after a proper consideration of parity at first instance, the differentiation resulting from the sentence imposed on co-offender on appeal could be explained to offender without them harbouring a sense of unfairness.
Leave to appeal granted. Appeal allowed. Offender resentenced to 20 years of imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 years.
