Lai v R [2021] NSWCCA 217

Court of Criminal Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Lai v R [2021] NSWCCA 217 Hearing dates: 2 August 2021 Date of orders: 8 September 2021 Decision date: 08 September 2021 Before: Bathurst CJ at [1] Adamson J at [2] Bellew J at [3] Decision: (1) Leave to appeal is granted. (2) The appeal is dismissed. Catchwords: CRIMINAL LAW – Offences – Sentence – Application for leave to appeal against sentence – Where applicant pleaded guilty to an offence of attempting to possess a commercial quantity of an unlawfully imported border controlled drug – Parity principle – Whether the applicant had a justifiable sense of grievance in light of the sentences imposed upon co-offenders – Where the fact that all co-offenders were sentenced by the same judge presents a hurdle to an applicant for leave to appeal based on a complaint of unjustified disparity – Where there were distinguishing features between the respective subjective cases – No justifiable sense of grievance made out – Leave to appeal granted – Appeal dismissed PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Observations as to the practice of an offender tendering a statement to a sentencing judge in the absence of giving sworn evidence – Practice to be discouraged – Material of that nature deserving of little or no weight Legislation Cited: Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) Cases Cited: Attorney-General's Application under s 37 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 No. 1 of 2002 (2002) 56 NSWLR 146; [2002] NSWCCA 518 Bugmy v The Queen (2013) 249 CLR 571; [2013] HCA 37 Chamon v R [2020] NSWCCA 112 Ferrer-Esis v R (1991) 55 A Crim R 231 Green v The Queen; Quinn v The Queen (2011) 244 CLR 462; [2011] HCA 49 Gwardys v R [2019] NSWCCA 62 Klomfar v R [2019] NSWCCA 61 Lowe v The Queen (1984) 154 CLR 606; [1984] HCA 46 Pfitzner v R [2010] NSWCCA 314; Postiglione v The Queen (1997) 189 CLR 295; [1997] HCA 26 R v Dennison [2011] NSWCCA 114 R v Lai; R v Po [2019] NSWDC 771 R v Ngan [2020] NSWDC 493 R v Paliwala [2005] NSWCCA 221; (2015) 153 A Crim R 451 Ryan v R [2009] NSWCCA 183 Stocco, Gino v R; Stocco, Mark v R [2018] NSWCCA 77 The Queen v Olbrich (1999) 199 CLR 270; [1999] HCA 54 Weber v R [2020] NSWCCA 103 Texts Cited: N/A Category: Principal judgment Parties: Wei Han Lai – Applicant Regina – Respondent Representation: Counsel: M C Ramage QC – Applicant S Flood – Respondent