When a District Court judge exercises the jurisdiction of a magistrate under s 22 of the Magistrates Act 1983 (SA), the 2-year maximum imprisonment limit in s 19(3) of the Criminal Law (Sentencing) Act 1988 (SA) does not apply, because the judge sits as the District Court, not as the Magistrates Court. The R v Major approach of assigning provisional individual sentences before arriving at a single sentence under s 18A is not mandatory and may be inappropriate where it leads to an unrealistic starting point; the totality principle must be applied as a final check. The appellate procedure for mixed sentences remains uncertain and warrants legislative attention.
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