R v Cohen

THE COURT : The Court delivered judgment in this matter on 12 September 2002 (Santow JA, Hidden J and Adams J). Application has been made by the Director of Public Prosecutions to re-open this matter to correct a sentencing error pursuant to s43 of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999. Essentially the issue concerns the fact that the trial judge, Andrew ADCJ, made an error of dating the sentence from the date of Mr Cohen’s arrest which he stated to be “on 3 May 2001” when that was incorrect and should have been “3 May 2000” when Mr Cohen was in fact arrested. When the matter was heard by this Court the issue in relation to the commencement date of the sentences was not raised and the appeal was dismissed without consideration of the issue.

The Crown has indicated that it does not oppose the making of the following orders. REVISED ORDERS

Accordingly the orders of the Court are as follows: (1) The matter be re-opened pursuant to s43 Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999 for the purpose of making the following orders; (2) The sentence imposed by Andrew ADCJ on 26 November 2001 be quashed; (3) In lieu thereof Christopher Lawrence Cohen is sentenced: (a) in respect of Counts 1 and 2, concurrent terms of imprisonment of eight years to commence on 3 May 2000 with a non-parole period of six years to expire on 2 May 2006; (b) in respect of Counts 3 and 4, concurrent terms of imprisonment of six years to commence on 3 May 2000 with a non-parole period of four years and six months to expire on 2 November 2004, (c) in respect of Counts 5 to 7, concurrent terms of imprisonment of two years to commence on 3 May 2000 and to expire on 2 May 2002.