Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Sentencing Act 1991 - SECT 9

Aggregate sentence of imprisonment3

9. Aggregate sentence of imprisonment3





(1) If an offender is convicted by a court of two or more offences which are
founded on the same facts, or form, or are part of, a series of offences of
the same or a similar character, the court may impose an aggregate sentence of
imprisonment in respect of those offences in place of a separate sentence of
imprisonment in respect of all or any two or more of them.

(1A) Despite subsection (1), a court must not impose an aggregate sentence of
imprisonment if-

   (a)  the offender is a serious offender within the meaning of Part 2A and
        any of the offences of which the offender is convicted is a relevant
        offence within the meaning of that Part; or

   (b)  the offences comprise at least one offence committed by the offender
        while released under a parole order and one offence committed at
        another time.

(2) The term of an aggregate sentence of imprisonment imposed in accordance
with subsection (1) must not exceed the total effective period of imprisonment
that could have been imposed in respect of the offences in accordance with
this Act if the court had imposed a separate sentence of imprisonment in
respect of each of them.

(3) If a court proposes to impose an aggregate sentence of imprisonment, it
must before doing so announce in open court, in language likely to be readily
understood by the offender-

   (a)  the decision to impose an aggregate sentence and the reasons for doing
        so; and

   (b)  the effect of the proposed aggregate sentence.



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