On a Director's appeal against sentence, manifest inadequacy alone does not warrant appellate intervention; the inadequacy must be so egregiously disproportionate as to constitute error in principle. Where a respondent has been released into the community on a wholly suspended sentence and has demonstrated continuing rehabilitation, the Court will exercise its overriding discretion to decline to intervene, particularly where imposing immediate custody would put rehabilitation at risk. The rehabilitation of youthful offenders, while a matter of great public benefit, may have to yield to general deterrence and denunciation where the offending involves serious group violence against defenceless victims.
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