New section 66F of the 1998 Act: Restriction on sentencing powers where youth conditional caution given
357.New section 66F provides that, save in exceptional circumstances, a court may not, when sentencing an offender who has been given a youth conditional caution in the period of two years preceding the commission of the offence for which he is being sentenced, sentence that person to a conditional discharge. Where the court is satisfied that exceptional circumstances are present, the sentencer must state in open court why he or she is so satisfied.
