A sentencing judge may not decline to give credit for time spent in custody on remand as a mechanism for reflecting the aggravating factor that an offence was committed while on bail. The aggravating factor must be taken into account in fixing the length of the sentence itself, and there is no equivalence between the time spent in custody and the extent to which an aggravating factor increases the appropriate sentence. Once House v The King error is established in respect of one component of a sentence, the whole sentence must be set aside and the appellate court must exercise its sentencing discretion afresh; the question is not whether the sentence was within range but what the appropriate sentence is.
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