Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

SENTENCING ACT 1995 - SECT 123A

    (1)     This section applies if:

        (a)     an offender is charged with an offence in the Local Court; and

        (b)     the offence is listed for a trial in the Local Court; and

        (c)     a plea of guilty is received from the offender within 7 days before the date appointed for the trial.

    (2)     Despite section 5(2)(j), the court, in sentencing the offender, must not:

        (a)     have regard to the plea of guilty and the stage in the proceedings at which the offender pleaded guilty; and

        (b)     impose a sentence that is less severe than the sentence that the Local Court would have imposed but for the plea of guilty.

    (3)     Subsection (2) does not apply if the court is satisfied that the offender could not have pleaded guilty any earlier.