Apkarian v WA

[2015] WASCA 67

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Parity principle
4. › Whether parity principle applies to offenders not charged as co-offenders
5. › Whether common criminal enterprise existed between independent street-level drug dealers
6. › Whether association and connection through police operation sufficient to engage equal justice principle
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Totality principle
4. › First limb
5. › Whether total effective sentence bears proper relationship to overall criminality
6. › Multiple offences of selling prohibited drug
7. › Low-level street dealing of heroin
8. › Misuse of Drugs Act 1981 (WA), s 6(1)(c), s 34(1)(a)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal against sentence
3. › General appellate principles
4. › Sentencing discretion
5. › Whether error demonstrated

Quick Take

Independent street-level drug dealers who know each other and are targets of the same police operation are not co-offenders for the purposes of the parity principle, and the connections between them are insufficient to engage the broader principle of equal justice, where each operates independently and for their own benefit. A total effective sentence of 2 years' imprisonment for three counts of selling small quantities of heroin (0.06g, 0.07g, 0.13g) by a persistent offender with extensive criminal history does not infringe the first limb of the totality principle.