Should all parties come to an agreement; the accused may enter a plea and be sentenced without the need for a lengthy trial. A very famous example of a plea and sentence agreement is the case of Coronet Equities, where three executives avoided a charge of almost 30 000 counts of theft and fraud resulting in 20 charges.

The common plea types include: Guilty – A guilty plea is the admission by a defendant that he did indeed commit the crime for which he is charged. Such an admission of guilt waives the defendant’s rights, and can therefore only be made with the court’s consent.