R v. Lennon [1999] QCA 192 (26 May 1999)

Vessey was intoxicated. He had a blood alcohol concentration in excess of .2 per cent. He drove on the wrong side of the road for about 150 metres, turned into a street where his vehicle gave a misleading trafficator indication of what he intended to do and drove through a give way sign colliding with the victim's vehicle. He had a very bad history of driving under the influence of liquor with high blood alcohol concentrations. He had two previous convictions for dangerous driving.

In allowing the appeal the Court remarked that Sheppard had decided that Judges should not always consider themselves fettered by sentences which had previously been imposed for a particular offence, but should impose sentences which were appropriate in the circumstances of the particular case.

"It is not necessarily helpful to talk of a range for dangerous driving causing death or grievous bodily harm. The circumstances may vary greatly from one case to another. For example, with respect to the age of the offender, the extent of injury done, whether there had been previous offences in respect to driving offences and, particularly, as to the character of the driving itself. It was suggested in argument before us that a range of four to five years had been adopted. If that is so it plainly cannot be justified, not only because of the wide variability of the circumstances of these offences, but also because its actual maximum is, in a case such as the present, 14 years."

These remarks appear to have been endorsed in Vessey. The consequence is that a sentencing Court should not concentrate upon a discernible range of comparable sentences, but should focus upon the circumstances of the particular case remembering the seriousness of the offence and such mitigating factors, or explanations as there may be.

Nevertheless there has to be some consistency in sentences imposed for like offences where the circumstances are broadly similar. This was a bad case. Its dominant features were the level of intoxication, the prolonged dangerous driving and rejection of two explicit warnings.

The learned sentencing Judge was entitled to take a serious view of it. Vessey and Sheppard make it clear that the sentencing discretion in such cases is not to be artificially constrained within a preconceived range

Despite this the sentence imposed is substantially greater than for other cases of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and more serious than all but one of the instances of dangerous driving causing death. The only cases in which a sentence greater than 6 years was imposed, Vessey and Slater, were both instances of an accused who had a substantial criminal history including dangerous driving and/or multiple drink/driving offences.

The applicant does not have Vessey's or Slater's appalling history. The dangerous driving in this case was not deliberate but the result of excessive intoxication. Intentional aggressive or dangerous driving appears from the cases to be a factor tending to a heavier penalty.

THOMAS JA: The order of the Court will be the application is allowed; the sentence below is set aside and replaced with a sentence of six years' imprisonment with a disqualification from holding a driver's licence for a period of 10 years.