In sentencing for culpable driving causing death and cognate offences, the innocence of the victim is properly treated as a circumstance of aggravation, and the complicity of a victim is the absence of that circumstance of aggravation (though not a circumstance of mitigation). The observations to the contrary in R v Howarth are wrong and should not be followed. It is a matter for the sentencing judge's discretion what weight to give to victim complicity. Licence disqualification periods should bear a relationship to the period of imprisonment and should not inhibit the offender's rehabilitation; where the head sentence is lengthy, the disqualification should be set to enable the offender to apply for a licence upon or shortly after release.
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