CRANSHAW v REGINA [2009] NSWCCA 80

New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal

CITATION: CRANSHAW v REGINA [2009] NSWCCA 80 This decision has been amended. Please see the end of the judgment for a list of the amendments.

HEARING DATE(S): Wednesday 15 April 2009

JUDGMENT DATE: 25 August 2009

JUDGMENT OF: Giles JA at 1; Hall J at 2; RA Hulme J at 77

(1) Grant leave to appeal. (2) Appeal upheld. DECISION: (3) The sentences imposed by the District Court on 5 June 2008 in respect of the offence, sequence 205 (and the matters on the Form 1 in relation to that offence), be set aside. (4) The applicant be re-sentenced in respect of the offence of obtaining a financial advantage in the sum of $315,000 (sequence number 205) and taking into account the matters on the Form 1, to a term of imprisonment comprising a non-parole period of one year and eight months to commence on 26 March 2009 and to expire on 25 November 2010 with a balance of term of one year and four months to expire on 25 March 2012. Accordingly, the first date on which the applicant will be eligible for parole will be 25 November 2010.

CATCHWORDS: CRIMINAL LAW – appeal against sentence – particular offences – applicant was involved in an organised crime syndicate which took over the identities of legitimate individuals and entities in order to defraud financial institutions – applicant was instructed by syndicate organiser and attended banks where he provided fraudulent identification and bank documents to withdraw funds – application of parity principles – co-offenders – the sentencing judge's finding in relation to the applicant's criminality and relativity to his co-offenders was open on the evidence – whether the sentencing judge varied the statutory ratio adequately pursuant to a finding of special circumstances – a longer period of supervision ought to have been provided to give effect to the sentencing judge's finding of special circumstances – applicant resentenced to reduce total effective non-parole period by four months