Amber Morrell, Associate from our busy Criminal Law team, represented a client at the Court of Appeal on 16th January 2024 for an Appeal against Sentence, on the grounds of totality and credit. This was based on the sentencing Judge failing to outline the starting points and reductions for a number of sentences, which were passed at the same time. Anyone who pleads guilty at an early stage of proceedings is usually entitled to a one third reduction on their sentence.
In addition, the overall sentence must be “just and proportionate”, when a number of offences are sentenced at the same time, in accordance with the Sentencing Council’s guideline on the principle of Totality, and on this occasion we successfully argued that it wasn’t. Therefore, the appeal was successful and the original sentence of 7 years was quashed and substituted with a sentence of 5 years and 9 months. The Judgment records the Court being grateful for Amber’s submissions, and that her submissions were ‘well founded’.
A link to the Judgment can be found here: https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewca/crim/2024/32?query=202301581%2FA2
Please click here to find out more about Waldrons’ Criminal Law team.
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