A sentencing court that has considered circumstances under s 8(1)(c) of the Sentencing Act 1995 (NT) and found them not to be 'extenuating' is not required to give further and separate consideration to those same circumstances when determining whether to record a conviction. Where an offender asserts that a conviction will have a specific detrimental impact on employment, the onus is on the offender to prove that impact on the balance of probabilities; reliance on bar table assertions and equivocal character references may be insufficient. In drink-driving cases, there is little scope for variation in objective seriousness based on the offender's subjective belief about fitness to drive, and the distinction between 'blatant' and 'not blatant' offending is ill-adapted to this context.
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