What is a community service order?

A community service order is a penalty that is imposed by a court for an offence. One of the aims of such orders is that an offender in carrying out the order can be seen to be repaying the community for his/her crime.

This order can also be made when fines are unpaid and the outstanding amount is converted.

An offender is required to work for a specific number of hours. The maximum that can be imposed for an offence is 240 hours.

Work is done for organisations or individuals who satisfy the conditions that they cannot:

• do the work themselves
• get someone else, such as family or friends, to do the work for them
• pay for the work to be done

In some cases the offender is able to undertake counselling, courses or programs to complete their order.