Sentencing

The Magistrate will consider the facts presented by the Police and the submissions made by you or your solicitor when deciding the appropriate penalty to be imposed. The Magistrate may decide to deal with your matter immediately or may want to adjourn your matter for a Pre-Sentence report or to refer you to a traffic offender program.

Pre-sentence Report

These reports are prepared by an officer of the Probation & Parole service. Matters are normally adjourned for 6 weeks for a full pre sentence report or for a few hours for an oral pre sentence report. The officer from Probation & Parole will interview you and from this interview they will prepare a report that includes your comments about why you committed the offence and your background. It is important that you co-operate fully with the officer as the officer will make recommendations as to an appropriate sentence in their report.