1When an offender has spent significant time in residential rehabilitation on bail, a failure to consider that time in the sentencing exercise constitutes an error in the exercise of the sentencing discretion, following DPP v Kayvanshokoohi [2024] ACTSC 386.
2Credit for time in residential rehabilitation is to be quantified by reference to the factors in Kelly v The Queen [2018] NSWCCA 44, including the restrictiveness of the environment, the nature of programs undertaken, and the productivity of the time spent; even where evidence on those factors is sparse, some credit may be warranted where demonstrated progress through the program is established.
3For low-level subsistence drug trafficking motivated by addiction and financial need, demonstrated rehabilitation — including residential treatment and attitudinal change — can balance the punishment otherwise called for by scheduled offences taken into account on sentence.
