Last updated 8 January 2019

Offenders convicted of more than one offence are sentenced separately for each offence. The court may order that the sentences be served at the same time (concurrent sentences) or after the first sentence has been served (cumulative sentences). Most sentences are ordered to be served concurrently (s 155 Penalties and Sentences Act 1992 (Qld) (Penalties and Sentences Act)). This means that the length of time to be served would be equal to the length of the longest of the sentences imposed. Cumulative sentences must be ordered when the offender has committed an offence listed in sch 1 of the Penalties and Sentences Act of serious violent offences, and that offence was committed while serving a term of imprisonment, on parole, on leave of absence from prison or at large after escaping from custody (s 156A Penalties and Sentences Act).