Under s 144 of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld), the power to suspend a term of imprisonment applies to the sentence for each individual offence, not to an aggregate of sentences across multiple counts. A sentencing judge cannot impose separate terms of imprisonment for each count and then purport to suspend part of the total period of imprisonment as if it were one sentence. Where cumulative sentences are intended to be partially suspended, the suspension must be structured on a per-count basis.
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