The parity principle does not require that an offender with significant prior convictions receive a suspended sentence merely because co-offenders without prior convictions received suspended sentences for the same or greater quantities of drugs. The decision whether to suspend a sentence is an individual assessment in which considerations of disparity have no part. The general propositions regarding youth and rehabilitation in R v Mills are not of universal application and may be displaced by specific and general deterrence where a youthful offender has prior convictions, has breached previous dispositions, and was offending while on a community-based order.
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