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Sentencing Act 2002

Sentences, orders, and related matters - Miscellaneous, transitional, and savings provisions - Transitional and savings provisions

149: Community-based sentence for offence committed before commencement date

You could also call this:

"Sentence for a crime committed before new law starts, with community work or supervision options"

Illustration for Sentencing Act 2002

If you commit a crime before a new law starts, but you are sentenced after it starts, the court can give you a community-based sentence. The court can sentence you to community work or supervision, but only if you would have gotten a similar sentence under the old law. You can be sentenced to community work if the court thinks you would have gotten community service or periodic detention under the old law, which is explained in section 29 or section 37 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985. When the court decides how long your sentence should be, it must think about what your sentence would have been under the old law, and it cannot give you a longer sentence than you would have gotten under the old law.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM136898.

Topics:
Crime and justice > Criminal lawCrime and justice > Courts and legal help
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148: Reparation or fine for offence committed before commencement date, or

"Paying back or getting a fine for a crime committed before the law changed"

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150: Community-based sentences imposed under Criminal Justice Act 1985, or

"Rules for community sentences given under an old law"

Part 2Sentences, orders, and related matters
Miscellaneous, transitional, and savings provisions: Transitional and savings provisions

149Community-based sentence for offence committed before commencement date

  1. This section applies if an offender is sentenced on or after the commencement date for an offence committed before that date.

  2. The court may, subject to section 19,—

  3. sentence the offender to community work under subpart 2 if, had it been dealing with the offender immediately before the commencement date, it would have sentenced him or her to community service or periodic detention under section 29 or section 37 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985; or
    1. sentence the offender to supervision under subpart 2 if, had it been dealing with the offender immediately before the commencement date, it would have sentenced him or her to supervision or a community programme under section 46 or section 53 of the Criminal Justice Act 1985.

      1. When determining the length of, or number of hours of work to be done under, a sentence imposed in accordance with this section, the court—

      2. must take into account the length of the sentence or the number of hours of work or service that it could have imposed had it dealt with the offender immediately before the commencement date; and
        1. must not impose a greater number of hours or a longer sentence than it would have imposed had it sentenced the offender immediately before the commencement date.