Does Section 654 of the California Criminal Code require a single criminal offence to be punished under the same law?

Section 654 provides in pertinent 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).) Section 654 thus "precludes multiple punishments for a single act or indivisible course of conduct." (People v. Hester (2000) 22 Cal.4th 290, 294.) To determine whether a course of conduct is indivisible, courts consider the intent and objective of the defendant. If all of

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the criminal acts were incident to a single criminal objective, the court may impose punishment only as to one of the offenses. (People v. Beamon (1973) 8 Cal.3d 625, 636-637.)