Where a prosecution does not put before the sentencing court any evidence of prior convictions and does not challenge the court's expressed assumption of good character, it is open to the sentencing court to find the offender is of previous good character for the purposes of s 45(1)(b)(ii) of the Sentencing Act 1995 (WA). An appellate court applying House v The King principles cannot intervene in a discretionary spent conviction order merely because it would have exercised the discretion differently; material error must be established.
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