R v Pham

HIGH COURT OF AUSTRALIAFRENCH CJ,BELL, GAGELER, KEANE AND NETTLE JJTHE QUEEN (CTH)  APPELLANTANDVU LANG PHAM  RESPONDENTThe Queen v Pham[2015] HCA 394 November 2015M82/2015ORDER1.Appeal allowed.2.Set aside the orders of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria made on 5 September 2014.3.Remit the matter to the Court of Appeal for determination. On appeal from the Supreme Court of VictoriaRepresentationR J Bromwich SC with D D Gurvich for the appellant (instructed by Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions)G A Archer SC with M D Phillips for the respondent (instructed by Victoria Legal Aid) Notice:  This copy of the Court's Reasons for Judgment is subject to formal revision prior to publication in the Commonwealth Law Reports.CATCHWORDSThe Queen v PhamCriminal law – Sentencing – Federal offences – Consistency – Current sentencing practices – Whether sentencing courts to have regard to current sentencing practices throughout Commonwealth.Criminal law – Appeals against sentence – Manifest excess or inadequacy – Sentencing statistics – Drug importation offences – Whether permissible to assess current sentencing practices by statistical analysis of correlation between sentence and quantity of drug imported.Precedent – Intermediate appellate courts – Use of sentencing decisions of intermediate appellate courts.Words and phrases – "consistency", "courier", "current sentencing practices", "statistics", "yardstick".Crimes Act 1914 (Cth), Pt IB.Criminal Code (Cth), s 307.2.Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth), s 68.Sentencing Act 1991 (Vic), s 5(2)(b).FRENCH CJ, KEANE AND NETTLE JJ. Upon pleading guilty before a judge of the County Court of Victoria (Judge Tinney) to one charge of importing a marketable quantity of a...