The parity principle requires that distinguishing features between co-offenders must be sufficient to justify the disparity in sentence; where the principal beneficiary of a fraud receives a fine without conviction, a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment on the less culpable co-offender contravenes parity. When resentencing to achieve parity, the court may nonetheless impose a conviction (unlike the co-offender's sentence) where the applicant's overall criminality warrants it.
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