R v Smith

In this application for leave to appeal against sentence the Court of Appeal was required to consider the proper application of s 160B(2) of the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992, specifically whether the sentencing judge ought to have fixed a date that the Applicant be released on parole, rather than a date that the Applicant was eligible for parole. On the facts before the Court the Applicant had committed a series of offences whilst she was on parole; however she was not sentenced until after the original end-date of her period of imprisonment –the question was whether her parole order had been cancelled during her period of imprisonment. After undertaking a careful analysis of the relevant sections of both the Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 and the Corrective Services Act 2006 (“CSA”), in particular s 209 of the CSA, their Honours unanimously concluded that a parole order is cancelled automatically upon the commission of an offence, and it is irrelevant (to this analysis) whether or not the sentencing for that offence occurs after the period of parole has expired. Consequently, in this appeal, the Court affirmed the sentencing judge’s decision to fix the date that the Applicant was eligible for parole.