Where an offender is charged with both possession of a prohibited import and trafficking based on deemed trafficking through possession for sale of the same drugs, sentencing on both the possession counts and the trafficking count constitutes impermissible double punishment. The appropriate remedy is to record convictions on the overlapping possession counts but impose no sentence. The Crown's argument that an additional element in the possession offence (unlawful importation) distinguished it from the trafficking offence was rejected as an excessive subtlety inconsistent with the commonsense approach required by Pearce v The Queen.
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