When sentencing for attempt to obtain possession of prohibited imports where co-offenders are charged with importation, the sentencing judge must confine the assessment of culpability to the offence actually charged and cannot treat the offender's culpability as equivalent to or greater than that of co-offenders charged with importation, even where the offender had knowledge of and involvement in the broader importation scheme. The observations in R v Lawless suggesting that the De Simoni principle does not apply where offences carry the same maximum penalty are no longer to be followed in light of R v Olbrich. Under the Commonwealth sentencing regime, non-parole periods are customarily fixed at 60-66% of the head sentence, with no statutory ratio applying.
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