Suspended sentence of imprisonment
40 Suspended sentence of imprisonment
A court which sentences an offender to a term of imprisonment of not more than 5 years may make an order suspending the sentence where it is satisfied that it is desirable to do so in the circumstances.
An order suspending a sentence of imprisonment may suspend the whole or a part of the sentence and the order may be subject to such conditions as the court thinks fit.
Note for subsection (2)
For example, the order could be subject to a condition mentioned in the Regulations for a community correction order or an intensive community correction order.
A court must not impose a suspended sentence of imprisonment unless the sentence of imprisonment, if unsuspended, would be appropriate in the circumstances having regard to this Act.
Where an offender is convicted of more than one offence in the same proceeding, a court may only make an order suspending a sentence of imprisonment imposed by it where the aggregate period of imprisonment imposed in respect of all the offences does not exceed 5 years.
A wholly suspended sentence of imprisonment is taken to be a sentence of imprisonment for all enactments except an enactment providing for disqualification for, or loss of, office or the forfeiture or suspension of pensions or other benefits.
A court must specify in an order suspending a sentence of imprisonment a period of not more than 5 years from:
if the whole of the sentence is suspended – the date of the order; or
if a part of the sentence is suspended – the date specified in the order;
during which the offender is not to commit another offence punishable by imprisonment if the offender is to avoid being dealt with under section 43.
Where an offender is ordered to serve the whole or part of a wholly suspended sentence of imprisonment under section 43, then, for any enactment providing for disqualification for, or loss of, office or the forfeiture or suspension of pensions or other benefits, the offender is taken to have been sentenced to imprisonment on the day on which the order was made under that section.
A partly suspended sentence of imprisonment is taken, for all purposes, to be a sentence of imprisonment for the whole term stated by the court.
For this section, a suspended sentence of imprisonment imposed on an offender on appeal is taken to have been imposed by the appellate court.
Despite subsection (9), where a suspended sentence of imprisonment is imposed on an offender on appeal, an application under this subdivision that may be made to a court may be made to the court whose order was appealed against and that court may deal with the offender even if the court is not the court that imposed the sentence.
This provision refers to the regulations (the Regulations
). Made under this Act:
This Act’s bill:Second reading speech
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