WA v Wilkins

[2020] WASCA 149

Western Australia Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › State appeal against sentence
4. › Manifest inadequacy
5. › Aggravated home burglary
6. › Attempted aggravated armed robbery
7. › Whether conditionally suspended imprisonment manifestly inadequate as to type and length
8. › Criminal Code (WA), ss 392, 401(2)(a), 552(2)(a)
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Totality principle
4. › First limb
5. › Whether total effective sentence bore proper relationship to overall criminality
6. › Multiple offences arising from single incident
1. Criminal Law
2. › Sentencing
3. › Backdating of sentence
4. › Prisoner not in lawful custody after resentencing
5. › Whether fixed term of imprisonment elapses while prisoner not in lawful custody
6. › Proper construction of s 8(3) of Sentence Administration Act 2003 (WA)
7. › Sentence Administration Act 2003 (WA), ss 3, 4, 5, 6(1), 8(3)
8. › Sentencing Act 1995 (WA), ss 37, 87(1)(d)

Quick Take

Conditionally suspended imprisonment for aggravated home burglary involving a weapon, violence against an elderly victim, and entry into an occupied home is manifestly inadequate. Section 8(3) of the Sentence Administration Act 2003 (WA) operates prospectively from the date of sentencing and applies to any period when a prisoner is not in lawful custody, not only to periods following escape; consequently, where a prisoner fails to surrender after resentencing on appeal, the sentence does not elapse during the period of absence and no correction of a backdated sentence is required.