Tony Montgomery, instructed by Salhan & Co, appealed a sentence of 9 years’ imprisonment which was quashed in the Court of Appeal and a sentence of 6 years substituted.

The offences were conspiracies to supply cocaine and heroin, to which the defendant belatedly changed his plea to guilty at trial. The Court of Appeal found fault with the sentencing exercise in several respects.

The Court of Appeal held that the sentencing judge departed from an explicit indication given at an earlier stage that he would not take a higher starting point than that suggested by the prosecution. The judge did not adopt the step- by- step approach to sentencing required in the sentencing guidelines of determining the starting point, then adjusting for aggravating and mitigating features to reach a notional sentence had there been a trial and then discounting for the guilty plea.

The judge’s approach was not in keeping with the guidelines because he simply declared that he took the mitigation into account to arrive at what he called a starting point from which he merely made a reduction for the guilty plea. The judge did not explain what factors led to his selection of the starting point. The judge was held to have taken too high a starting point on the evidence of the defendant’s role. The judge was found to have erred in compendiously referring to the mitigation of all the defendants who fell to be sentenced instead of assessing the quality of mitigation of each individual defendant. The judge was held to have given insufficient weight to the substantial mitigation available to the defendant which included being only 19 at the time of the offending, which was substantially younger than his co-conspirators; being a carer for a relative with mobility issues and keeping in legitimate work for a lengthy period after the indictment period. Lastly the Court of Appeal had regard to remorse and efforts made to change, as evidenced by a letter he had penned and proof of courses in prison that he had attended.

In the result, the only part of the sentencing exercise which escaped criticism was the award of ten per cent discount for the guilty plea.

Tony’s full profile: https://greatjames.co.uk/members/tony-montgomery/