Russo (a pseudonym) v The King

[2024] VSCA 40

Victorian Court of Appeal

Built by Barristers,
For Australian Law.

See how it works

Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal
3. › Sentence
4. › Approach to sentencing on multiple charges
5. › Broad-brush approach
6. › Whether sentencing judge erred by imposing identical sentences within categories of offences where individual charges differed significantly
7. › Whether broad-brush approach appropriate outside systematic fraud or common enterprise cases
1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal
3. › Sentence
4. › Guilty plea
5. › Subjective benefit
6. › Whether applicant entitled to additional credit for willingness to facilitate course of justice by pleading guilty in face of weak prosecution case
7. › Whether prosecution case was in fact weak
1. Criminal Law
2. › Appeal
3. › Sentence
4. › Reasonable prospect of reduction to total effective sentence
5. › Family violence
6. › Whether error in individual sentences offset by derisory cumulation orders
7. › Criminal Procedure Act 2009 (Vic), s 280(1)(b)

Quick Take

Sentencing judges should not apply the broad-brush approach to individual sentences where the differences between charges within a category are measurable in months or years, and where there are only a small number of charges of a particular type; the approach is more suited to systematic fraud or common enterprise cases with numerous similar counts.