A sentence of community service rather than immediate custodial imprisonment may be appropriate for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice where the offending did not involve concealment of any crime, the offender's culpability was at the lower end of the scale, and there were powerful mitigating circumstances including chronic pain, rehabilitation, and triple jeopardy from re-sentencing and Crown appeal. The scope of the offence itself may not extend to every case of misleading police where no crime has been committed, though this question was left open.
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