The defendant sought leave to appeal against a sentence of three and a half years for offences of escaping lawful custody, dangerous driving and driving whilst disqualified. The sentence included consecutive and concurrent sentences. After being sentence for one offence, he feigned disability, and escaped. He was later caught after serious dangerous drunk driving. Concurrent sentences should normally be used in road traffic sentencing where the offences are on one occasion. The sentence of 21 months on a guilty plea for dangerous driving was excessive, and 18 moths was substituted. The overall total was reduced to three years by also reducing the sentence for escaping custody to nine months.
Citations:
[2001] NIECA 30
Links:
Northern Ireland, Criminal Sentencing, Road Traffic
Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.166315