When an indictable offence is tried on indictment rather than summarily in the Magistrates' Court, the maximum penalty prescribed by the legislature for the offence applies in full; the two-year jurisdictional limit under s 113 of the Sentencing Act 1991 applies only to the Magistrates' Court and does not reduce the statutory maximum. A sentencing judge may take into account that charges could have been prosecuted summarily, but is not bound to sentence as if the jurisdictional limit applied.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 4 later cases that cite this judgment.