Penny v WA

[2010] WASCA 65

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Multiple offences
4. › Cumulation and concurrence of sentences
5. › Totality principle
6. › Whether sentencing judge failed to take into account recently completed prison sentence
7. › Whether total effective sentence disproportionate to overall criminality
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Multiple offences
4. › Totality principle applied by analogy
5. › Offender who has already served a term of imprisonment for prior offence
6. › Whether recently completed sentence a relevant consideration in determining total effective sentence

Quick Take

When sentencing an offender who has just completed serving a prior sentence of imprisonment, the sentencing judge must take that recently completed sentence into account as a relevant consideration in determining the total effective sentence for new offences, applying the totality principle by analogy. Failure to do so constitutes an express error vitiating the sentencing discretion.