12 Dec 2019
The Court upheld the 33-month sentence because the established baseline of 30 months for non-residential burglary was properly applied and a 3-month uplift for the appellant's immigration status and the planned nature of the offence was justified; the sentence was not manifestly excessive and therefore should be maintained.
23 Nov 2018
Given the exceptional factual matrix (appellant a 20‑year‑old bus enthusiast removing low‑value bus route plates from public bus terminus offices, no prior record, full cooperation and genuine prospects of rehabilitation), the court held the standard 30‑month non‑residential burglary benchmark was not appropriate; it set an 18‑month starting point per count, applied a one‑third guilty plea reduction to 12 months per count and ordered the three counts to run concurrently, reducing the aggregate sentence from 24 months to 12 months imprisonment.
30 Sept 2014
The trial judge's factual findings on credibility and the inferences of flight and assistance were reasonable and supported by the evidence; therefore the conviction for non‑residential burglary under joint enterprise is upheld. On sentencing the Court of Appeal found the trial judge's uplift for planning and prior convictions warranted some increase but reduced the burglary term from 3.5 to 3 years while affirming the 16‑month dangerous driving term and ancillary driving disqualification and course; sentences to run consecutively producing a total term of 4 years 4 months.
27 Feb 2012
For three non‑residential burglary offences in the circumstances of this case (repeat offending, use of tools, offences committed while on bail), the appropriate combined sentencing starting point is five years; after applying the one‑third guilty plea discount the total sentence is 40 months. The Court therefore allowed the appeal, retained the individual terms but restructured concurrency so that certain months of the first two counts run consecutively with the 26‑month third count to produce an overall sentence of 40 months.