The Court of Appeal held that a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment combined with a 2-year community correction order for negligently causing serious injury by driving was manifestly inadequate where the offender drove through two sets of red lights while significantly intoxicated (BAC of 0.199 some two and a half hours post-collision, on a zero-BAC licence), causing serious pelvic, spinal and shoulder injuries requiring extensive rehabilitation. The Court resentenced the respondent to 3 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of 18 months. While reaffirming the Harrison dictum that a CCO may theoretically be available for lower-category instances of this offence, the Court emphasised that no post-Harrison VSCA decision has actually approved such a disposition, and that where the degree of negligence is high, the offending is too serious for a CCO even when combined with imprisonment, notwithstanding significant personal mitigation including extra-curial punishment, Bugmy factors, and Verdins principles.
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