PART 9MISCELLANEOUS
Early guilty pleas
I188Sentencing court to indicate sentence which would have been imposed if guilty plea entered at earliest reasonable opportunity
1
Subsection (2) applies where in any criminal proceedings a person (“D”) is convicted of an offence and—
a
D did not at any stage of the proceedings plead guilty to the offence; or
b
D's plea of guilty to the offence (or D's indication of intention to plead guilty) was not, in the opinion of the court, entered (or given) at the earliest reasonable opportunity.
2
The court in sentencing D for the offence must indicate the sentence which the court would have imposed for the offence if D had pleaded guilty to the offence (or indicated D's intention to do so) at the earliest reasonable opportunity in the proceedings.
3
For the purposes of this section—
a
a plea of guilty which is changed to a plea of not guilty is to be disregarded;
b
an indication of intention to plead guilty is to be disregarded if a plea of not guilty is actually entered.