For repeat offenders of driving under the influence and driving under suspension/disqualification, sentences of imprisonment to be served immediately remain the ordinary disposition. A magistrate's misapprehension of the offender's period of non-offending (confusing time in custody with time at liberty) constitutes a material sentencing error warranting appellate intervention. Following Dinsdale v The Queen, the correct approach is that a suspended sentence is always open, and only if it is not appropriate to suspend may immediate imprisonment be imposed — but for multiple repeat offenders, immediate imprisonment will ordinarily be the only appropriate disposition.
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