With several joint offenders whose acts ended on different days, from which date does the limitation period begin to run against each of them?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In practice material of this kind, we read the papers that show when each offender's act ended, the findings or records establishing that the offenders acted jointly, and any statement in the file fixing the date of the last act in the sequence.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading follows the provision directly: the period runs from the time the criminal act ended, and where the offenders acted jointly, it runs from the time the final act ended, against every joint offender, so the later date starts the clock for all of them.
Another reading notes that the provision fixes only the starting point: it does not say when an act that continued over time is to be treated as ended, nor what follows if a step is taken after the period has run, so the file has to show what fact counts as completion.
Your judgment
If one joint offender's act ended before another's, how could the file show that the later act was part of the same joint offence rather than a separate one?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the starting point or to say when a continuing act is deemed ended, or if a court decision defines what counts as completion of an act for this purpose.