Does a judge usually seriously consider the recommended sentence from the probation pre sentence report?
It is entirely up top the judge how much weight he places on the probation report, and he is not bound to follow it. If he was bound, then it would be probation that would effectively be sentencing the defendant. Once the report is produced it is for your barrister or solicitor to mitigate and convince the judge to adopt the recommendations or to reject them based on what is best for the client.
