Where a considerable extension of time is sought to appeal against sentence, the Court will focus on whether the proposed appeal has such merit that it would probably succeed, and may decline to determine whether the explanation for delay is satisfactory if the merits are clearly insufficient. Complaints about the trial judge's directions to the jury on the elements of the offence are properly characterised as grounds of appeal against conviction, not sentence, and cannot be raised in a sentence appeal where the time to appeal conviction has already expired.
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