Number 35 — Impact of the high range PCA Guideline judgment on sentencing drink drivers in NSW

Impact of the high range PCA Guideline judgment on sentencing drink drivers in NSW

As a result of “systemic leniency in sentencing” for the drink driving offence of high range prescribed concentration of alcohol (PCA), the NSW Attorney-General made an application to the Court of Criminal Appeal for a guideline judgment. A particular concern was that too many offenders were receiving s 10 orders — that is, orders that result in either an outright dismissal or a conditional discharge that avoids the usual consequences of a recorded conviction and sentence. On 8 September 2004, a five judge Bench of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal delivered a guideline judgment for the offence.

The guideline defines an “ordinary case” of a high range PCA offence and the circumstances in which certain dispositions may be appropriate or inappropriate. The guideline also identifies particular factors that increase the moral culpability of the offender and specifies what type of penalties may or may not be appropriate in such circumstances. The court decided not to make use of numerical indicators, such as are found in many earlier guideline judgments where penalty ranges are specified for particular types of offences.