Sentencing parity is a discrete ground of appeal that permits the Court of Criminal Appeal to intervene with an otherwise appropriate sentence where the disparity between co-offenders' sentences engenders a justifiable sense of grievance. The principle applies to persons involved in a common criminal enterprise, not only to those who committed the same offence or were tried together. Statements in R v Li and R v Kairouz that 'disparity is not itself a ground for appellate intervention' are to be understood as meaning only that mere difference in sentence is insufficient — what must be shown is a marked disparity giving rise to a justifiable sense of grievance.
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