CRIMINAL APPEAL — sentencing — aggravating circumstances — forgery — 33 counts involving single act — where sentencing Judge accepted prosecution’s submission that offence comprised a series of criminal acts — s 21A(2)(m) — conceded error — resentencing — whether sentence of imprisonment only appropriate sentence — unusual circumstances including completion of community service and partial service of intensive correction order — community correction order imposed
Quick Take
1The aggravating factor in s 21A(2)(m) of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) — that 'the offence involved … a series of criminal acts' — applies only where a single charged offence is constituted by multiple criminal acts, not where an offender is sentenced for multiple separate offences each involving a single act.
2Where an ICO has been partially served (including completion of community service hours) and cannot be backdated on re-sentence under s 71 of the Sentencing Act, those circumstances are relevant to whether the s 5(1) threshold requiring imprisonment is crossed, and may justify a non-custodial sentence on re-sentencing.
3Parity principles remain applicable even where a co-offender was sentenced in a lower court with a substantially lower jurisdictional limit and on differently structured charges, though the comparison is complicated by those differences.
