A compensation direction under s 97 of the Victims Rights and Support Act 2013 (NSW) does not operate in mitigation of sentence because it is in the nature of disgorgement of ill-gotten gains. Even if such a direction could in principle be mitigatory, no mitigatory effect arises where the direction has not been enforced and no actual reparation has been made. In fraud cases, the usual limited utility of comparable sentences is further attenuated because of the enormous variation in objective and subjective circumstances.
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