An offender who pleads guilty on the eve of trial after negotiating discontinuance of a more serious count cannot claim the plea was at the first reasonable opportunity where the charges to which the plea was entered were correctly formulated for a substantial period, no attempt was made to negotiate earlier, and no specific forensic disadvantage in pleading earlier is identified. The loss of an offender's contribution to a home-based family business and its financial consequences do not, without more, constitute exceptional circumstances for the purposes of family hardship mitigation under s 16A(2)(p) of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).
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