The Attorney General appealed te sentence of 12 months in a young offenders institution suspended for two years, and a 200 hour unpaid work and two year supervision. For the possession and supply of class A and class C drugs.
Held: The reference was allowed, but the sentence was not changed. Judges should not be afraid of sentences where leniency was, as in this case, justified. ‘The oath taken by a judge to administer justice without fear or favour, affection or ill ill extended to imposing what the judge concluded to be the appropriate sentence, without being deterred by the fear of an Attorney General’s reference.’ The test of intervention was not leniency, but undue leniency.
Citations:
Times 27-Apr-2007, [2007] EWCA Crim 922
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Sentencing
Updated: 11 July 2022; Ref: scu.251779