Park v. The Queen

Lower Court Judgment

06/05/2020 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Criminal Appeal) (Bathurst CJ, R A Hulme & Fullerton JJ)

[2020] NSWCCA 90

Catchwords

Criminal law – Sentencing – Guilty plea reduction -  Where s 22(1) of Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) provides that, in passing sentence on offender who has pleaded guilty to offence, court may impose lesser penalty “than it would otherwise have imposed” – Where applicant pleaded guilty to offence – Where offence has 5 year maximum penalty but jurisdictional limit of 2 years applies when dealt with summarily by District Court – Where primary judge would have imposed sentence of 2 years 8 months for offence and applied 25 per cent reduction to sentence pursuant to s 22(1) – Where applicant sentenced to 2 years imprisonment – Where applicant appealed to Court of Criminal Appeal on basis reduction should have been applied to 2 years (jurisdictional limit applied to appropriate sentence) instead of 2 years 8 months (appropriate sentence before jurisdictional limit applied) - Where Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed appeal and held “would otherwise have imposed” refers to appropriate sentence despite jurisdictional limit, and jurisdictional limit only relevant if sentence post-reduction exceeds jurisdictional limit – Correct construction of “would otherwise have imposed” – Whether reduction of sentence applies to sentence appropriate to judicial officer but beyond jurisdictional limit or to sentence court would actually have imposed if no guilty plea.