Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

SENTENCING ACT - SECT 48

(1) For the purposes of this subdivision, an offender breaches a home detention order if he or she:

(a) fails to reside in or remain at the premises or place specified in the order;

(b) fails to comply with a term or condition of the order;

(c) wilfully destroys, damages or removes, or attempts to destroy, damage or remove, any part of a monitoring device or any associated machine, equipment or device;

(d) fails to comply with a lawful request of a surveillance officer or member of the Police Force to undergo a breath test, breath analysis or blood or urine test;

(e) disturbs or interferes with any other person residing in the premises or at the place specified in the order;

(f) assaults, threatens, insults or uses abusive language to a surveillance officer;

(g) commits a breach of the Regulations; or

(h) commits an offence against a law in force in the Territory or elsewhere during the term of the order.

(2) Where a Justice is satisfied, on reasonable grounds by an information laid before him or her, that an offender in respect of whom a home detention order has been made has breached the order as specified in subsection (1), the Justice may:

(a) issue a summons directing the offender to appear at a court on a date and at a time specified in the summons to show cause why the offender should not be further dealt with under this section; or

(b) where the information is on oath and the Justice is satisfied that proceedings against the offender by summons might not be effective, issue a warrant for the arrest of the offender.

(3) Where an offender served with a summons issued under subsection (2)(a) fails to attend before the court, the court may, on proof of service of the summons, issue a warrant for the arrest of the offender.

(4) A member of the Police Force who suspects, on reasonable grounds, that an offender has breached a home detention order may, without warrant, arrest the offender and for that purpose may, by reasonable force if necessary, enter premises or a place.

(5) For the purposes of the application of sections 137 and 138 of the Police Administration Act , a breach of a home detention order shall be taken to be an offence.

(6) Where a court is satisfied that an offender has breached a home detention order, subject to subsection (9):

(a) if the order is still in force, the court must revoke the order; and

(b) whether the order is revoked under paragraph (a) or is otherwise no longer in force, the offender must be imprisoned for the term suspended by the court on the making of the order as if the order had never been made and despite any period that the offender may have served under the order.

(7) Where, after the expiration of the period of a home detention order, an offender in respect of whom the order was made is found guilty of an offence against a law in force in the Territory or elsewhere committed during the period of the order, the offender shall be imprisoned for the term suspended by the court on the making of the order as if the order had never been made and notwithstanding any period the offender may have served under the order.

(8) Where records purporting to relate to the activities of an offender, being records:

(a) generated by or through a monitoring device; or

(b) comprising the notebooks or diaries of a surveillance officer,

are produced to a court in a proceeding under this section, the matter contained in the records is, as far as it is applicable, evidence of the activities of the offender.

(9) Where:

(a) the offender has breached a home detention order by virtue of subsection (1)(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), (f) or (g) and, having regard to the circumstances of the offender or the breach, the court is of the opinion that it is appropriate to do so; or

(b) the offender has breached a home detention order by virtue of subsection (1)(h) and the offence committed is a regulatory offence or is not punishable by imprisonment,

despite subsection (6), the court may:

(c) if the order is still in force - direct that the order continue in force and, in so doing, may vary the terms and conditions of the order, including, subject to subsection (11), the period the order is to remain in force; or

(d) if the order is no longer in force - subject to subsection (11A), make another order under section 44(1) suspending the sentence on the offender entering into a home detention order.

(10) Where a court, in accordance with subsection (9), does not revoke a home detention order, it may, in directing that the order continue in force, vary the terms and conditions of the order, including, subject to subsection (11), the period the order is to remain in force.

(11) A variation of a home detention order shall not be made under subsection (10) if the effect of that variation is that the period of the order exceeds 12 months.

(11A) A home detention order must not be made for the purpose of subsection (9)(d) if the aggregate of:

(a) the period of the order made for the purpose of subsection (9)(d); and

(b) so much of the period of the order that was breached as remained after the date of the breach,

exceeds 12 months.

(12) Where an offender has breached a home detention order by virtue of subsection (1)(c), the offender is liable to pay the costs of restoring or replacing a monitoring device, or associated machine, equipment or device, destroyed or damaged in the breach of the order and those costs may be recovered from the offender as a debt due and payable to the Territory.

(13) Where an offender has breached a home detention order by virtue of subsection (1)(h) or has been found guilty of an offence in circumstances referred to in subsection (7) and the offender is sentenced to a term of imprisonment for the offence, the term shall commence at the expiration of the term of imprisonment suspended on the making of the order.