Criminal Trial Process

Summary Offences 

Summary offences, as we already discussed start in the magistrates court and stay in the magistrates court, meaning that what ever the summary fine is, the maximum penalty they can give to the offender can either be a £5,000 fine or 6 months imprisonment. There are 6 bands of fines Band A being the lowest and Band F being the highest. The sentence is decided by three magistrates who discuss the facts and points of the case, together they will make a decision. The chair is the magistrate with the most amount of power and will make the final decision on the sentence, however if the chairs to colleagues are in agreement on something then that will most likely be the final verdict. In the magistrates court they can also give whats known as a community sentence, which will involve the guilty person doing voluntary work for the community. It could be repairing something that they or a group of people may have damaged or just cleaning up the area.

Indictable offences

Indictable offences are the most serious offences a person can commit, these include murder, rape, robbery, GBH and many more. These offences are less common than summary offences. Similar to summary offences they start in the magistrates court, however automatically move up to crown court. This is because the magistrate court does not have sufficient sentencing power to deal with these types of offences. The crown court has the power to give life sentences and full life sentences (the difference being a life sentence is a maximum of 25 years and a full life sentence is for the rest of the offenders life) Also the crown court can sentence a unlimited fine sentence which can lead to massive sums of money, this is because some crimes that involve money mean that massive amounts have been taken and need to be payed back.