Where a sentencing judge imposes individual sentences at the upper end of the available range for multiple offences, the period of cumulation must be carefully calibrated to ensure the total effective sentence does not breach the totality principle. If the cumulation cannot properly be reduced, the individual sentences should be lowered, provided they do not become artificially low. Quantifying the discount for a plea of guilty in specific terms (e.g., 'two years') is an unhelpful digression from the instinctive synthesis approach, even if it does not necessarily constitute the impermissible two-tiered approach rejected in R v Young.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 8 later cases that cite this judgment.
1 of the 8 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.