Applicant pleaded guilty to five charges of attempting to export ‘regulated native specimens’ and ‘CITES specimens’
Quick Take
1Offences against both ss 303CC and 303DD of the EPBC Act are directed to a common purpose of targeting the global illicit wildlife trade; general deterrence, denunciation and punishment loom large in sentencing for such offences, and they normally attract full-time custodial sentences.
2Verdins limb 2 (impaired mental functioning bearing on the kind of sentence imposed) does not require that imprisonment not be imposed; it requires the sentencing judge to take that possibility into account, and the absence of an express finding that limb 2 'applied' does not demonstrate error where the reasons as a whole show the court considered the offender's mental health when determining the appropriate disposition.
3In the context of wildlife export offences where general deterrence is the predominant sentencing principle, factors personal to the offender — including mental health, youth, good character and risk of deportation — may be given less weight than might otherwise be the case.
