A sentencing judge is not bound to accept the parties' agreed characterisation of an offender's role in a drug enterprise (such as 'courier'), and may decline to make such a finding where the offender provides no account of their role and the evidence suggests a more significant involvement. In such circumstances, the judge may sentence on the known facts without assigning any particular role. A mitigatory finding that an offender had a particularly lowly role requires a sound evidentiary basis and is not to be made by default or inferred from an absence of evidence.
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