A sentencing judge does not err by failing to take into account the possibility of automatic forfeiture under the Confiscation Act 1997 where the offender has not adduced evidence enabling the court to quantify or estimate the likely effects of forfeiture. The burden lies on the offender to adduce such evidence, and mere assertions from the bar table are insufficient. The recognition that commercial drug cultivation offences ordinarily require custodial sentences absent exceptional circumstances is consistent with the instinctive synthesis approach to sentencing.
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