Community Orders

Durham Tees Valley Probation Trust is committed to managing, delivering and enforcing the Order of the Court and working with offenders in a fair and courteous manner. Upholding the authority of a Court Order is a priority for our staff.

We supervise offenders who are made subject to Community Orders under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (CJA 2003) which enables Magistrates and Judges to tailor the sentence to the individual offender through the use of 12 requirements dependent upon the offence committed and the underlying issues relating to the offender’s criminal behaviour. The Community Order can be between 6 and 36 months in length dependent upon the seriousness and circumstances relating to the crime committed.

If an offender fails to comply or participate with the requirements of the Community Order, the Offender Manager will initiate breach proceedings and the offender will be returned to Court.

An offender can also be sentenced to a Suspended Sentence Order under the CJA 2003. The offender is made subject to a period of imprisonment (6–24 months), suspended for a duration determined by the Court (no longer than 24 months), and made subject to one or more requirements.

Should the offender fail to participate or comply with the requirements of the Suspended Sentence Order or commit a further offence, the offender places themselves in breach of the order and the Court may activate the Suspended period of custody.

You can find more information on Court Orders in the section of the website 'Are you a Sentencer'.