Mitigation is asking the court to be lenient when imposingsentence. You should state specific reasons such as familyhistory, education, medical history, contribution to society,employment history etc. and how they relate to the offence, if atall. The objective is to convince the court that you are differentfrom the numerous other offenders before the court and deserve alighter sentence than the court normally gives.

Q: What if I cannot pay the fine?

You will then be brought to Queenstown Remand Prison to servethe default imprisonment sentence. You should ensure that you havesufficient funds with you to pay the fine before you plead guilty.You can apply to the court to grant installment payment of thefine. If you are unable to pay the fine in full or if the courtturns down your request, you shall have to serve the alternativesentence - imprisonment.