What is a Community Payback sentence and how does community service work?
COMMUNITY service orders are used to punish criminals whose crimes fall short of deserving a prison sentence.
A criminal is sentenced to carry out unpaid work in their local area — but what crimes merit a community service order and what does the punishment involve?
What is a Community Payback sentence?
You may get a community sentence if you’re convicted of a crime by a court but are not sent to prison.
You may have to do unpaid work in your local community, like removing graffiti.
This is called Community Payback.
Community sentences can be given for crimes such as damaging property, benefit fraud and assault.
You may get a community sentence if the court thinks you’re more likely to stop committing crime than if you go to prison, it’s the first time you have committed a crime and you have a mental health condition that affects your behaviour.
What is a community service order?
A judge can pass a community service order if a criminal is found guilty of a crime that does not meet the threshold for a custodial sentence.
They can be told to carry out anywhere between 40 and 300 hours of unpaid work, depending on the severity of the crime.
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The community work often involves making improvements to the local area.
Examples include removing graffiti from buildings, clearing rubbish from wasteland, and decorating public spaces and buildings like a community centre.
Those sentence to carry out community service, also known as community payback, may be managed by a supervisor during their work.
And they are made to wear an orange high-vis vest.
Unemployed criminals can expect to work three to four days a week to carry out their sentence.
For those who are employed, the community work will be arranged outside of their employment hours, such as evenings and weekends.
What crimes can lead to a community service order?
Damaging property, petty theft, non-grievous assault, shoplifting, drink driving or small-scale benefit fraud can lead to community service orders.
If the crime falls short of deserving a prison sentence, or if the court thinks that community service would do better than prison in preventing repeat offending, they will choose the community service instead.
If it is a first-time offender, the court I most likely to rule for community service.
What celebrities have been handed community service orders?
Naomi Campbell
Brit supermodel Naomi was sentenced in the US in 2007 to five days' community service.
She pleaded guilty to hitting her housekeeper on the head with a mobile phone during a row.
Campbell showed up to her last day at the New York sanitation department — responsible for rubbish collection in the city — in a designer dress and heels.
Boy George
Eighties popstar Boy George also served community service in New York in 2005 after falsely reporting a burglary.
The Culture Club singer was also found with cocaine which he insisted was not his.
He pleaded guilty to wasting police time and was sentenced to five days' community service, ordered to attend drug rehabilitation classes and was given a fine of $1,000.
He was initially ordered to sweep streets but lasted only half an hour before being moved because fans and press found him.
Jeremy McConnell
Reality TV star Jeremy McConnell was given 200 hours' community service in August 2017 after being found guilty of assaulting ex-girlfriend Stephanie Davis.
The Irish model was expected to carry out his unpaid work in Cardiff, where he was based for work, after narrowly avoiding jail.
He will likely be made to scrub graffiti, decorate public buildings or work in a local charity shop.
Wayne Rooney
Ex-England football captain Wayne Rooney pleaded guilty to drink driving in September 2017 after being caught at the wheel of a party girl's motor.
Married Everton star Wayne offered to take Laura Simpson, 29, to her house in Cheshire after a night of partying.
He was handed 100 hours' community service and banned from driving for two years.
Kirsty Gallacher
The Sky Sports presenter, 41, who was caught three times over the drink-drive limit, was spotted helping out at a hospice’s store for two hours recently.
The mum of two was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid community work after she was pulled over on the way to pick up her children.
Onlookers said she appeared to settle in quickly at the charity shop, which we are not naming.
Leeroy Bailey
Former Britain's Got Talent finalist Leeroy Bailey admitted one count of making indecent images of youngsters which were found on his computer.
The court heard the street dance teacher recorded the indecent images - which featured a naked male - on his mobile phone but claimed his motive was not sexual.
Bailey, of Coventry, admitted making two movies in category C, defined as showing children in naked or indecent poses.
He was warned he could face jail ahead of a sentencing hearing, but was given a three-year community order to complete a sex offender programme.