When the Criminal Act requires a sentence to be aggravated or mitigated, by which sentence is the period for prosecution measured?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the charge and the offence it falls under in the Criminal Act, the aggravating or mitigating circumstance relied on, such as a paper showing a prior conviction, and any sentencing submission that names the sentence the party says should apply.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision at its word: where the Criminal Act aggravates or mitigates a sentence, the provision on the period for prosecution is applied by reference to the sentence as it stands without that aggravation or mitigation, so the heavier or lighter sentence produced by the aggravation or mitigation does not change the period.
Another reading stresses the provision's own limit, which is that it speaks only of aggravation or mitigation made 'under the Criminal Act', so it does not settle by which sentence the period runs where some other statute raises or lowers the sentence, nor how the base sentence is identified where the Criminal Act itself sets a range.
Your judgment
Where a statute outside the Criminal Act alters the sentence, what in the file shows which sentence the period for prosecution should be measured against?
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 reach aggravation or mitigation made under other statutes, or if a court decision explains how the un-aggravated, un-mitigated sentence is identified where the Criminal Act sets a range.