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Totality 10A

Multiple fines
Circumstance	Approach
Offender convicted of more than one offence where a fine is appropriate	The total is inevitably cumulative. The court should determine the fine for each individual offence based on the seriousness of the offence and taking into account the circumstances of the case including the financial circumstances of the offender so far as they are known, or appear, to the court (section 125 of the Sentencing Code). The court should add up the fines for each offence and consider if they are just and proportionate. If the aggregate total is not just and proportionate the court should consider how to reach a just and proportionate fine. There are a number of ways in which this can be achieved. For example: where an offender is to be fined for two or more offences that arose out of the same incident or where there are multiple offences of a repetitive kind, especially when committed against the same person, it will often be appropriate to impose for the most serious offence a fine which reflects the totality of the offending where this can be achieved within the maximum penalty for that offence. No separate penalty should be imposed for the other offences. where an offender is to be fined for two or more offences that arose out of different incidents, it will often be appropriate to impose a separate fine for each of the offences. The court should add up the fines for each offence and consider if they are just and proportionate. If the aggregate amount is not just and proportionate the court should consider whether all of the fines can be proportionately reduced. Separate fines should then be passed. Where separate fines are passed, the court must be careful to ensure that there is no double-counting.Where compensation is being ordered, that will need to be attributed to the relevant offence as will any necessary ancillary orders.
Multiple offences attracting fines – crossing the community threshold	If more than one of the offences being dealt with are imprisonable, then the community threshold can be crossed by reason of multiple offending, when it would not be crossed for a single offence (section 204(2) of the Sentencing Code). However, if all the offences are non-imprisonable (e.g. driving without insurance) the threshold cannot be crossed (section 202 of the Sentencing Code).