(1)The Crown Court or a magistrates’ court may defer passing sentence on an offender for the purpose of enabling the court, or any other court to which it falls to deal with him, to have regard in dealing with him to—
(a)his conduct after conviction (including, where appropriate, the making by him of reparation for his offence); or
(b)any change in his circumstances;
but this is subject to subsections (2) and (3) below.
(2)The power conferred by subsection (1) above shall be exercisable only if—
(a)the offender consents; and
(b)the court is satisfied, having regard to the nature of the offence and the character and circumstances of the offender, that it would be in the interests of justice to exercise the power.
(3)Any deferment under this section shall be until such date as may be specified by the court, not being more than six months after the date on which the deferment is announced by the court; and, subject to section 2(7) below, where the passing of sentence has been deferred under this section it shall not be further so deferred.
(4)Notwithstanding any enactment, a court which under this section defers passing sentence on an offender shall not on the same occasion remand him.
(5)Where the passing of sentence on an offender has been deferred by a court under this section, the court’s power under this section to deal with the offender at the end of the period of deferment—
(a)is power to deal with him, in respect of the offence for which passing of sentence has been deferred, in any way in which it could have dealt with him if it had not deferred passing sentence; and
(b)without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (a) above, in the case of a magistrates’ court includes the power conferred by section 3 below to commit him to the Crown Court for sentence.
(6)Nothing in this section or section 2 below shall affect—
(a)the power of the Crown Court to bind over an offender to come up for judgment when called upon; or
(b)the power of any court to defer passing sentence for any purpose for which it may lawfully do so apart from this section.