Sentencing Act 2002

Sentences, orders, and related matters - Community-based sentences - Community detention

69D: Concurrent and cumulative sentences of community detention

You could also call this:

"Serving community detention sentences at the same time or one after the other"

If you are given a sentence of community detention and you are already serving one, you will serve them at the same time, unless the court says otherwise. The court can decide that you serve the sentences one after the other, which is called cumulatively. If the court decides that you serve the sentences cumulatively, or if you get more than one community detention sentence, the total time you serve cannot be more than 6 months.

If you are given a sentence of community work and a sentence of community detention, you will serve them at the same time. This is also the case if you are already serving one of these sentences and you get the other one. You can find more information about the laws that govern this in the Sentencing Act 2002 and the Sentencing Amendment Act 2007.

When the court makes a decision about your sentence, they will consider the rules about serving community detention sentences.

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This page was last updated on 26 June 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM136071.

Topics:

Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Courts and legal help

69C: Guidance on use of sentence of community detention, or

"Guidance on Community Detention: Staying at Home as Punishment for Breaking the Law"

69E: Conditions of community detention during sentence term, or

"Rules to follow when serving a community detention sentence"

Part 2Sentences, orders, and related matters
Community-based sentences: Community detention

69DConcurrent and cumulative sentences of community detention

If a court imposes a sentence of community detention on an offender who is already subject to a sentence of community detention, the sentences must be served concurrently unless the court directs that they are to be served cumulatively.
If a court imposes cumulative sentences of community detention or imposes 1 or more sentences of community detention on an offender who is already serving a sentence of community detention, the total term of the sentences of community detention must not be more than 6 months.
If a court imposes a sentence of community work and a sentence of community detention, or imposes one of them on an offender who is already subject to the other, the sentences must be served concurrently.

Notes

Section 69D: inserted, on 1 October 2007, by section 33 of the Sentencing Amendment Act 2007 (2007 No 27).