New South Wales Consolidated Acts

CRIMES (SENTENCING PROCEDURE) ACT 1999 - SECT 47

47 Commencement of sentence

(1) A sentence of imprisonment commences:

(a) subject to section 70 and to any direction under subsection (2), on the day on which the sentence is imposed, or

(b) if the execution of the sentence is stayed under section 80, on the day on which the court decides whether or not to make a home detention order in relation to the sentence.

(2) A court may direct that a sentence of imprisonment:

(a) is taken to have commenced on a day occurring before the day on which the sentence is imposed, or

(b) commences on a day occurring after the day on which the sentence is imposed, but only if the sentence is to be served consecutively (or partly concurrently and partly consecutively) with some other sentence of imprisonment.

(3) In deciding whether or not to make a direction under subsection (2) (a) with respect to a sentence of imprisonment, and in deciding the day on which the sentence is taken to have commenced, the court must take into account any time for which the offender has been held in custody in relation to the offence to which the sentence relates.

(4) The day specified in a direction under subsection (2) (b) must not be later than the day following the earliest day on which it appears (on the basis of the information currently available to the court) that the offender:

(a) will become entitled to be released from custody, or

(b) will become eligible to be released on parole,

having regard to any other sentence of imprisonment to which the offender is subject.

(5) A direction under subsection (2) (b) may not be made in relation to a sentence of imprisonment imposed on an offender who is serving some other sentence of imprisonment by way of full-time detention if:

(a) a non-parole period has been set for that other sentence, and

(b) the non-parole period for that other sentence has expired, and

(c) the offender is still in custody under that other sentence.

(6) A sentence of imprisonment starts at the beginning of the day on which it commences or is taken to have commenced and ends at the end of the day on which it expires.