What is the test for Section 654 of the California Criminal Code when a defendant is convicted of a criminal offence under section 654?

Section 654 provides in part: "An act or omission that is punishable in different ways by different provisions of law shall be punished under the provision that provides for the longest potential term of imprisonment, but in no case shall the act or omission be punished under more than one provision." ( 654, subd. (a), italics added.) "[S]ection 654 applies not only where there was but one act in the ordinary sense, but also where there was a course of conduct which violated more than one statute but nevertheless constituted an indivisible transaction."⁶ (People v. Perez (1979) 23 Cal.3d 545, 551.)

"If all the offenses were incident to one objective, the defendant may be punished for any one of such offenses but not for more than one." (People v. Perez, supra, 23 Cal.3d at p. 551.) If, on the other hand, "the [defendant] entertained multiple criminal objectives which were independent of and not merely incidental to each other, he may be punished for independent violations committed in pursuit of each objective even though the violations shared common acts or were parts of an otherwise indivisible course of conduct." (People v. Beamon, supra, 8 Cal.3d at p. 639.)