AG v N 21-Dec-2020 [2020] JRC 265 (21 December 2020)

JUDGMENT THE BAILIFF: 1. Stand up please. You are to be sentenced today for four motoring offences, three of them on 6 th September where you drove without insurance in breach of the terms of your provisional licence and in a dangerous manner 2. That offending put you in breach of a Probation Order and a Community Service Order imposed by the Youth Court on 14 th February for three offences of breaking and entering and one of possession of herbal cannabis.

3. We do not need to go into the detail of the facts of the current offending as these have been set out thoroughly by the Crown and we have of course seen the CCTV footage.

4. Suffice to say, that you were driving a car that you recently purchased. You knew that you were uninsured and drove off to avoid arrest when a police officer sought to talk to you. This was very dangerous driving indeed and you put an officer's life in danger as well as potentially endangering members of the public.

5. The offending from which you were on probation involved breaking and entering occupied dwellings at night and some relatively minor theft.

6. In our view the custodial threshold has been passed in this case, but we must now turn of course to consider the threshold under the Criminal Justice Young Offenders (Jersey) Law 1994 and the test under Article 4(2) in so far as it is irrelevant to our deliberations, it says: "(2) A court shall not pass a sentence of youth detention unless: (b) ...it considers that no other method of dealing with the person appropriate because it appears to the court that - (i) the person has a history of failure to respond to non-custodial penalties and is unable or unwilling to respond to them." 7. You are in breach of a Probation Order so there is, in our view, a basis in law for saying that you have failed to respond to a non-custodial measure and we are entitled to consider youth detention as one of the options before us.

8. However, we note your youth and your guilty plea. We have read your letter of remorse which we accept is a genuine letter and we have read with care the references provided for you which point to us to a greater maturity than the offending before us suggests. It is clear, and we view this as important, that you have a supportive family around you who will try to help you not to re-offend.

9. All these things considered we think the court can offer you one further opportunity to put your life on track and to stay out of prison. Accordingly, we propose to adopt the conclusions of the Crown and you are sentenced as follows: (i) Count 1, 120 hours community service this is the equivalent of 6 months' youth detention coupled with a 12 month' Probation Order. 2 years' disqualification from driving and there is a requirement that you have to take a test, although of course that would be the case in any event. (ii) Count 2, 70 hours community service equivalent to 2 months' youth detention and a 12 month' Probation Order and 3 months' disqualification from driving, all concurrent. (iii) Count 3, a fine in the sum of £200 ordered. (iv) Count 4, a fine in the sum of £200 ordered. With regard to those fines, 4 weeks' youth detention in default of payment. We will allow you 30 days to make a payment of those fines. (v) We discharge the previous Probation Order but we order the Community Service Order that you were subject to for the earlier offences to continue and to be served consecutively which means that there is a total of 120 hours community service and a 12 month' Probation Order; £400 find and 2 years' disqualification for the current offending and taken with the time remaining for you to complete community service for the earlier offending that makes a total of 205 hours community service to be completed. The driving ban will be from the date of today.

10. I want you to listen to me very carefully. If a police officer had been injured, and that police officer would easily have been injured very badly by reason of your stupidity, you would be looking at a sentence of youth detention now. You would be looking at being taken out of this dock into custody and taken to prison. Do you understand me?

11. You are at a crossroads, it seems to us, and you have choices to make, mature grown up choices. You will not, very probably, be offered another chance. You should take this as being your last chance to get it right. You are showing a worrying sign of disregard for the law and disregard for the life and interests of your fellow citizens. You may even be at the top of a slippery slope and we really do not want to see that happen. You are young, you can build a satisfying worthwhile and productive life with the help of those who care about you, with the help of your family. Do you understand me?

12. We do not expect to see you here again or indeed before the Youth Court. If we do, then the Court may feel you have simply run out of chances so please take these words to heart, take them very, very seriously and do not let your family down. Authorities Criminal Justice Young Offenders (Jersey) Law 1994. Page Last Updated: 19 Jan 2021 BAILII: Copyright Policy | Disclaimers | Privacy Policy | Feedback | Donate to BAILII