Sheather v R [2020] NSWCCA 162

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Sheather v R [2020] NSWCCA 162 Hearing dates: 4 June 2020 Date of orders: 17 July 2020 Decision date: 17 July 2020 Before: Johnson J at [1] Davies J at [2] Ierace J at [64] Decision: (1) Leave to appeal granted. (2) Appeal dismissed. Catchwords: CRIME – appeal – sentencing - drug offences - supply commercial quantity of a prohibited drug – further count of participating in a criminal group on a Form 1 SENTENCING – appeal against sentence – severity - whether sentence was manifestly excessive – whether sentencing judge misused statistics – whether judge diminished the applicant's favourable subjective circumstances – where sentencing judge found special circumstances arising out of psychiatric report and family circumstances – where applicant's role was mostly that of a runner but occasionally more high-ranking – where supply well above commercial quantity and highly lucrative – sentence not manifestly excessive – whether parity with co-offenders – where each offender charged with different offences depending on amount of drugs they supplied – where applicant had a number of prior serious offences and gaol time on his record – no justifiable sense of grievance – appeal dismissed Legislation Cited: Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 (NSW) s 12 Drugs Misuse and Trafficking Act 1985 (NSW) s 25 Cases Cited: Chamon v R [2020] NSWCCA 112 Hughes v R [2018] NSWCCA 2 Vaiusu v R [2017] NSWCCA 71 Texts Cited: Nil Category: Principal judgment Parties: Daniel James Sheather (Applicant) Crown (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: S Kluss (Applicant) E Balodis (Respondent)