Where an offender deliberately misleads a court as to their identity and causes an innocent person to be convicted, it is open to assess the offence of perverting the course of justice as in the middle range of objective seriousness, even where the underlying offence is relatively minor. The less serious nature of the underlying offence may actually facilitate the identity fraud and is not necessarily a mitigating factor. A misstatement of maximum penalty for one offence within an aggregate sentence will not constitute material error where the sentencing judge's reasons demonstrate the offence did not contribute to the length of the aggregate sentence.
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