There was no need for the Court of Appeal to notify the Sentencing Advisory Panel under the Act unless it intended to give sentencing guidelines across a wide field. A proper sentence for a defendant shown to be a dealer in class A drugs at street level, selling to other addicts in order to buy drugs for himself and to found a modest living, and without previous convictions, would be six years imprisonment. The sentence might be increased for sales to the vulnerable and young, but an early plea and personal circumstances might reduce it. Since other offences could be prosecuted for wider scale activity, and in the absence of admissions, the court must sentence on the basis of the indictment as drawn.
Where an offender charged with a single count claims this had been an isolated transaction, this may be rejected if the evidence establishes that this was not the case. The offender should be given the appropriate sentence for a single offence but without the credit he would receive if it were an isolated incident.
Judges:
Sir Paul Kennedy VP QBD, Kennedy LJ, Alliott J
Citations:
Times 30-Nov-2000, [2001] Crim LR 151, [2001] Cr App Rep (S) 37, [2001] Cr App Rep (S) 9, [2001] Cr App R (S) 37, [2000] EWCA Crim 98
Links:
Cited by:
Approved – Regina v Alfonso; Regina v Sajid; Regina v Andrews CACD 9-Sep-2004
The defendants appealed sentences for supplying drugs. They were first time defendants, addicts caught selling drugs to police officers, and with no established stocks of drugs for sale.
Held: A short prison sentence was appropriate. A drug . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Criminal Sentencing
Updated: 19 May 2022; Ref: scu.88694
