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The Sentencing Council has published a significantly revised version of the Imposition of community and custodial sentences guideline.  It’s application may result in few people going to prison straight away.

This, in reality, new guideline sets out the guidance that magistrates and judges must follow when imposing community orders and custodial sentences, including deciding whether a custodial sentence can be suspended. Is is not isIt has been developed through public consultation and comes into effect on 1 April 2025.

The Guideline reminds courts that sentencers must have regard to the five purposes of sentencing when determining sentence.  These are:

• The punishment of offenders
• The reduction of crime (including its reduction by deterrence)
• The reform and rehabilitation of offenders
• The protection of the public
• The making of reparation by offenders to persons affected by their offences

Sentencers are reminded that ‘the weight each purpose should be given will vary from case to case. Both community and custodial sentences can achieve all the purposes of sentencing.’

Although a restriction on liberty will sometimes be necessary to safeguard victims and/or the public.   The Guideline stresses that ‘a restriction on liberty can be achieved by a community or a custodial sentence.’

The Guideline talks about the importance of pre-sentence report in helping the court make the correct decision on sentence.  It appears to stress that any sentencing decision should be tailored to the individual.

This could signal a more flexible approach that results in fewer people going to prison.  The Guideline stresses this:

“Passing the custody threshold does not mean that a custodial sentence (whether immediate or suspended) is inevitable. Custody should not be imposed where the purposes of sentencing could be achieved by a community order or where circumstances exist which may make a custodial sentence disproportionate to achieving the purposes of sentencing (for example, where there would be an impact on dependants, including on unborn children where the offender is pregnant.)”

The Guideline also reminds sentencers of their power of deferment and when this might be most appropriate:

“A deferment order is available to a magistrates’ court or the Crown Court. It delays the passing of a sentence until a date specified by the court which must be within 6 months. The court may impose deferment requirements as to the offender’s conduct during the period of deferment.

Deferring sentencing may be particularly appropriate for young adults (typically 18-25 years of age) or those who are in transitional life circumstances.”

We will be reviewing in detail the potential effect of these guidelines on the approach to sentence.

Contact one of our expert criminal lawyers

If you think you are going to prison you will want to seek expert legal advice.  Our solicitors and advocates are able to advise you in relation to any aspect of sentence and will be changing our approach where necessary to adapt to this changing guidance.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require advice in relation to criminal proceedings.

Advice and representation in a police interview under caution will always be free of charge to you.

Legal Aid will often be available to defend court proceedings.

We have offices across the East Midlands.

Contact your nearest office here. 

Alternatively you can use the contact form below

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A new Crime and Policing Bill is due before Parliament for the first time on 25 February 2025.    The Government claim that “the new bill will help tackle the crimes that matter most to communities but have been ignored for too long.”  

The governments sets out the background to the measures – “the year ending September 2024, police recorded one million incidents of antisocial behaviour. In the same period, they recorded over 490,000 shop theft offences, an increase of 23 percent over the previous 12-month period. Instances of theft from a person increased by 22 percent, while there were also over 55,000 recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument.”

It is proposed under new warrantless powers of entry  that police will be able to enter premises where stolen phone locations can be identified through a ‘find my phone’ app, WiFi access points, Bluetooth, mobile network technology or tracking devices attached to any other possession or vehicle.

Two aspects of the Bill will propose a separate offence of assault upon shop workers and previous legislation restricting shop thefts with a value of less than £200 to the Magistrates’ Court will be scrapped.

Respect Orders are proposed. These appear to be a re-branded form of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs).  They will be used in conjunction with new powers to seize off-road bikes used in parks and e-scooters used on pavements.

Stalking Protection Orders are to be strengthened, along with a new offence covering spiking and a law preventing registered sex offenders from changing their names while still a risk.

The Bill seeks to Implement a recommendation of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, creating a new duty to report child sexual abuse, backed up by criminal penalties for those who seek to cover up abuse.

A full summary of the proposals in the Crime and Policing Bill can be found here.

Contact one of our expert criminal lawyers

It is clear that the Crime and Policing Bill will once more amend the law and bring in a host of new offences.  Our solicitors are able to advise you in relation to any aspect of the new or existing laws.  Please do not hesitate to contact us if you are facing an investigation or prosecution.

Advice and representation in a police interview under caution will always be free of charge to you.

Legal Aid will often be available to defend court proceedings.

We have offices across the East Midlands.

Contact your nearest office here. 

Alternatively you can use the contact form below

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If you are being sentenced for an offence, the court will be aware of, and may take into account, any previous convictions you have. Whether this has any impact upon the sentence passed will very much depend on the date of those convictions and the relevance of any to the more recent offending.

If you plead not guilty, the court or jury can only be made aware of any convictions in certain circumstances. The relevant law is known as the ‘bad character provisions’.

What are the circumstances?

Prior to these provisions being introduced the court could be made aware of any bad character by way of similar fact evidence. So, for example, if a burglar had a particular or unusual way of committing offences, a Modus Operandi or MO, the detail could be given to the trial court. Whilst there were other ways in which evidence of bad character could be admitted, the general presumption was against evidence of previous convictions being used.

The new provisions expanded on the old law.

A defendant’s previous convictions may be admitted in court in the following circumstances:

• all parties agree
• a defendant introduces them himself
• it is relevant to an important matter in issue between the defendant and the prosecution
• it has substantial probative value in relation to an important matter in issue between the defendant and a co-defendant
• it is necessary to correct a false impression given by the defendant
• the defendant has made an attack on another person’s character

If you said in evidence when charged with theft, that you would never steal anything, and you had convictions for theft, it would mean the court is likely to be told about them.

If you called the prosecution witness a liar, you might find your convictions before the court.

As with the old law, any convictions based on your ‘MO’ could also be introduced. So, if you have previous convictions for burglary and are now charged with burglary, the prosecution may apply to admit this evidence.

Does this only apply to defendants?

You can also make an application for the bad character of a non-defendant or witness to be out before the court in certain circumstances.  Prosecution guidance as to disclosure of third party bad character evidence is here.

Instructing a specialist in bad character evidence

The law in respect of the bad character provisions is extremely complicated, there is extensive case law on the subject and this article is a very brief overview. Some practitioners are of the view that there is little that can be done to avoid bad character evidence being admitted – this is not something that we agree with, no concession should be made unless and until a detailed analysis of the circumstances has been carried out.

We can oppose any application on your behalf or make an application for a non-defendant’s character to be introduced.

We have the knowledge and experience to make these arguments on your behalf and guide you through the process.

The introduction, or otherwise, of any convictions may play a crucial part in the outcome of any trial.

Legal Aid will often be available to defend court proceedings.

We have offices across the East Midlands.

Contact your nearest office here. 

Alternatively you can use the contact form below

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Many people ask the question ‘should you represent yourself in court?’  This is in many cases because they know they are not eligible for legal aid or perhaps think they are not eligible.  People make this decision often without checking the position with a solicitor.

A recent study by Dr Charlotte Walker of York St John University revealed the following:

“In this study, in Court A, in 80 out of 220 (36%) hearings, the defendant appeared unrepresented; and in Court B, this was the case in 25 out of 183 (14%) hearings.

The defendants appeared without legal representation in 105 out of 403 (26%) hearings in total, which represents a significant minority.

Based upon the observations and interviews, this was due to a range of reasons including financial factors; defendants not wanting to delay proceedings; and defendants not seeing the value of having a lawyer.”

We accept that not everyone necessarily needs to be represented in court.  However, if legal aid is available then this is an entitlement.  It makes sense to ensure that all angles are covered.

It is perhaps ironic that some of the seemingly more basic cases, such as road traffic prosecutions, often throw up the trickiest legal issues.

According to Dr Walker, numerous studies have found that unrepresented defendants tend to struggle to represent themselves in court (Dell [1971], McBarnet [1981], Shapland [1981], Transform Justice [2016], Walker [2021]).

Can I afford legal representation?

If you are eligible for legal aid in the magistrates’ court, there is no cost to you. In the crown court, a contribution may be payable depending on your income. We can tell you in advance what the rules are in this regard.

You can read more about the legal aid schemes here.

Where legal aid is not available, many people are surprised at just how affordable “private representation” is. Many people have the idea that solicitors charge many hundreds of pounds per hour, and whilst a few do in corporate and commercial work, the pricing in criminal law is much more competitive and fixed fees are commonly offered for many cases.

You can read more about some of our fixed fees here.

There is no one answer to funding your criminal case, but you should always contact us for free to find out your funding options in detail. You have nothing to lose by doing so.

Contact an expert criminal defence lawyer

Before you have to ask the question ‘should you represent yourself in court’ contact one of our criminal defence solicitors at your nearest office.

Alternatively use the contact form below:

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This week Nicholas Hawkes become the first person to be convicted for the new offence of “Cyber-Flashing”. Hawkes sent unsolicited photos of his erect penis to a 15-year-old girl and a woman.

The woman took screenshots of the image on WhatsApp and reported Hawkes to Essex Police the same day.

Sefer Mani, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in the East of England, said:

“Cyber-flashing is a grotesque crime and the fact we were able to deliver swift justice for the two victims shows the new law is working.

Everyone should feel safe wherever they are and not be subjected to receiving unwanted sexual images.

I urge anyone who feels they have been a victim of cyber-flashing to report it to the police and know that they will be taken seriously and have their identities protected.”

This offence came in to force on 31 January 2024 and was created by the Online Security Act 2023. The Act inserts a new provision into the Sexual Offences Act 2003 (s 66A, an offence known formally as ‘Sending etc photograph or film of genitals’).

How is cyber-flashing committed?

A person (A) who intentionally sends or gives a photograph or film of any person’s genitals to another person (B) commits an offence if:

a) A intends that B will see the genitals and be caused alarm, distress or humiliation, or

(b) A sends or gives such a photograph or film for the purpose of obtaining sexual gratification and is reckless as to whether B will be caused alarm, distress or humiliation.

References to sending or giving such a photograph or film to another person include, in particular:

(a) sending it to another person by any means, electronically or otherwise,

(b) showing it to another person, and

(c) placing it for a particular person to find.

What is the sentence for this offence?

Cyber-flashing carries a maximum penalty of up to 2 years imprisonment. A conviction also means that the notification requirements under the SOA 2003 also apply, depending on sentence length (commonly referred to as the Sex Offender Register).

This offence is one of a number enacted by the Online Safety Act 2023.

Seek advice from an expert criminal lawyer

Seeking legal advice at the earliest opportunity will allow us to provide advice to you about the law and the evidence in either a police investigation or a prosecution.

If you are arrested or know that the police wish to speak to you about any criminal allegation make sure you insist on your right to free and independent legal advice.  We will be present in your interview to advise through the investigation stage.

The advantages of such early advice legal advice can be found here.

If you have already been interviewed or face court proceedings we can still make a real difference to the outcome of your case.

Legal aid may well be available to fund your defence at court.

We have offices across the East Midlands and will happily travel across the country to provide representation for all types of offences.

Alternatively you can use the contact form below.