Additionally, there was the circumstance compounding the total criminality, that each offender had been involved in the serious break, enter and steal offences also charged, a matter that normally would attract some additional punishment: Wheeler (2000) NSWCCA 34 per Sully J, at paras 36 to 37."
61 A little later he pointed out that it was upon the existence of exceptional circumstances that the appeal turned. After a careful review of the circumstances Wood CJ at CL said:
" His Honour was, in my view, entitled to find that the position of each respondent was wholly exceptional, and that each had achieved a remarkable level of rehabilitation. Additionally, as I have previously noted, it was only by reason of their admissions, that their guilt could ever have been established. Moreover, if they had been sentenced to full time custody, they would have been at considerable personal risk by reason of the assistance given, which would have made their detention arduous and limited their opportunity to participate in the kinds of rehabilitation programs that would have been appropriate for young offenders. There was every reason to suppose that to send them to gaol would have been more likely to turn them towards a criminal way of life, than to maintain the degree of rehabilitation which each had, of his own effort and initiative, achieved.