Question regarding probation period

[techra]

I have a question regarding probation when given a suspended/community sentence. I posted before as there was a bit of a mix up with my court appearances, I had two episodes very close together. I was given 12 week suspended sentence for the second episode for which I have had to have weekly face-to-face probation meetings, which due to personal circumstances have been quite difficult to attend and expensive (train travel). My second court appearance which was for the first offence (are you following this) was treated as such so they have given me a community sentence of 30 RAR days for that offence. However my Probation Officer thinks I will have to have another 3 months weekly appointments which means I will have had 6 months weekly appointments - quite intense as I haven't drunk since. Due to cuts the local alcohol service can't offer me any suitable RAR options. I understand I need to have probation for 2 years, very strange as I am 57 years old and have never had any problems. Does anybody have any similar experiences or can I appeal, not against the sentence, but the weekly probation meetings.

Thanks in advance.

 

[price1367]

A community penalty can be made up of up to 5 elements out of a range of 12 that the court can impose.

What did the court say you had to complete? It is quite possible for you to have been given 30 RAR days but with no supervision meetings. If they did say supervision for the second offence, then you cannot ‘trade off’ supervision meetings from a separate sentence you had at court on another occasion, even if they were for the same type of offence.

You could ask probation to ask the court to sign you off from further meetings if they felt that you did not need them, but to appeal against your sentence yourself, it would have to be within 21 days of the court appearance. After that it is not normally possible to appeal the sentence.

 

[techra]

Thanks. I don't want to appeal the sentence i feel that was fair. It was said they should run con -currently. Its more due to cuts the local alcohol service cannot offer me RAR support as I am a full time carer.

Didn't know I could ask my probation officer to sign me off from further meetings.

Thank you for your advice.