Where a sentencing judge imposes a community order as an alternative to imprisonment with a clear warning of the likely consequences of breach, that warning should be fully respected on breach save in exceptional circumstances. A third community-based order after two breaches will ordinarily be inappropriate absent clear evidence of a change in attitude. However, where the rehabilitative process is already underway and the offender is performing satisfactorily, the Court of Criminal Appeal may decline to intervene even where sentencing error is established.
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