ABSTRACT
In R v Mah-Wing (1983) 5 Cr App R(S) 347, it was held that the court, when determining the length of a suspended sentence, must first consider what would be the appropriate sentence of immediate custody and then go on to consider whether there are grounds for suspending it. ‘What the court must not do is pass a longer custodial sentence than it would otherwise do, because it is suspended’ (per Griffiths LJ).
