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the court which convicts the offender for a subsequent offence shall return the offender to
the original sentencing court for further consideration by that court on the matter of
revocation.
Moreover, Section 60 of the Criminal Justice Act 2007 requires the subsequent court to
remand the convicted offender back to the original court for consideration of revocation
of the suspended sentence. The consideration of revocation must be completed by the
original court before the subsequent court finalises its own sentence. If the original court
revokes the sentence and imposes the custodial sentence originally contemplated, or a
lesser term, then the accused is returned to the subsequent court for consideration of
sentence and if that sentence is also a custodial sentence such sentence must be
consecutive by operation of law. There appears to be no discretion open to a judge who
imposes a custodial sentence consequent upon the revocation of a suspended sentence by
the original court to make the custodial sentence concurrent.
However, Section 99(9) is quite clear on the time issues. The subsequent conviction must
be pronounced within the period of the suspension of the original sentence. Otherwise it
appears, notwithstanding that the offender may have committed an offence within the
period of suspension of the original offence, s/he is not amenable to further sanction as
the subsequent conviction was not obtained within the same period. On the other hand,
Section 99(13) and (14) seem to allow for the possibility that a person placed on a
suspended sentence may be amenable to revocation upon a complaint being made by the
Garda Siochana, the Prison Governor or the Probation Service during the period after the
expiration of the suspended sentence. Subsections (13) and (14) are unclear as to the time
limits within which a complaint may be made. The words “has contravened” may be read
as “is at present contravening” in the sense of a person who continually fails to comply
with a condition which requires to be observed over a period of time, for example a
condition that s/he attend at a drug treatment centre or sex offenders programme.
Alternatively, the words can be read literallyto mean that a breach has occurred at anytime
even at the last hour of the period of suspension. But the subsections do not prohibit the
making of a complaint after the expiration of the period of suspension or the imposition of
the suspended sentence after the periodof suspension has expired.
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