Where a co-offender higher in the drug distribution chain who gave no assistance to police receives a particular sentence, the parity principle requires that a lower-level co-offender who provided significant co-operation with police must receive a meaningfully lower sentence. An identical sentence in such circumstances will be set aside on appeal. The court cautioned that the specific sentence imposed should not be treated as a benchmark for drug trafficking sentences.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 7 later cases that cite this judgment.