Sentencing Act 2020

Youth rehabilitation order for offender previously fined

12 (1) In section 179 (exercise of power to impose youth rehabilitation order: general considerations), in subsection (2), at the end insert—

“This is subject to section 179A (persistent offender previously fined).”

(2) After section 179 insert—

“179A Exercise of power to make youth rehabilitation order: persistent offender previously fined

(1) This section applies where—

(a) the offender is aged 16 or 17 when convicted of the offence,

(b) on three or more previous occasions a sentence consisting only of a fine has been passed on the offender on conviction by a court in the United Kingdom of an offence committed by the offender after reaching the age of 16, and

(c) despite the effect of section 65 (effect of previous convictions in determining seriousness), the court would not (apart from this section) regard—

(i) the current offence, or

(ii) the combination of the current offence and one or more associated offences,

as being serious enough to warrant a youth rehabilitation order.

Paragraph (b) must be read with section 397A (offenders fined at least three times: interpretation).

(2) The court may make a youth rehabilitation order in respect of the current offence instead of imposing a fine if it considers that, having regard to all the circumstances including the matters mentioned in subsection (3), it would be in the interests of justice to make a youth rehabilitation order.

(3) Those matters are—

(a) the nature of the offences to which the previous convictions mentioned in subsection (1)(b) relate and their relevance to the current conviction;

(b) the time that has elapsed since the offender’s conviction of each of those offences.

(4) Nothing in this section limits the extent to which a court may, in accordance with section 65, treat any previous convictions of the offender as increasing the seriousness of an offence.”