Court of Appeal dismisses appeal against sentence for Candice Chmieluk

THE state’s highest court has dismissed an appeal against the “short” sentence given to a Gold Coast woman who killed her younger sister while driving drunk.

Candice Lee Chmieluk during an earlier court appearance. Picture: Glenn Hampson

THE state’s highest court has dismissed an appeal against the “short” sentence given to a Gold Coast woman who killed her younger sister while driving drunk.

Court of Appeal president Walter Sofronoff QC this afternoon ruled Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath’s appeal against the three month actual prison sentence handed to Candice Lee Chmieluk should be dismissed.

In May, Southport District Court judge David Kent sentenced the 31-year-old to five years prison, suspended after three months, after she pleaded guilty to dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death while adversely affected by alcohol.

Candice’s sister Sammy-Jo died instantly after Candice crashed her 4WD while driving four times over the legal blood alcohol limit and on a suspended driver’s licence.

Candice, a single mother-of-two, crashed into a traffic light on the Gold Coast Highway at Palm Beach on May 29, 2016 and the car erupted into flames, trapping Sammy-Jo in the wreck.

In court today the Crown argued that “this offender in this circumstance should not have been sentenced to short period of actual custody”.

They argued Judge Kent made an error when he sentenced Ms Chmieluk and she should be re-sentenced.

Ms Chmieluk’s barrister Andrew Boe argued his client had a reduced culpability at the time of the crash because she suffered from an “identified psychological drinking disorder”.

Mr Boe told the appeal court that judges sentencing offenders can take into account the fact that Ms Chmieluk’s victims had forgiven her, and how they would be affected if she was imprisoned.