In late 2010 an unemployed young man, taking part in an extensive drinking session, ran out of beer and took a friend’s car in order to buy more. Driving without either licence or insurance he ran a red light and crashed broadside into another car. Thankfully no-one was hurt but our friend fled the scene of the accident and was arrested too late to be breathalysed.
For, amongst other things, the aggravated taking of a vehicle without the owner’s consent, he was later sentenced to a large number of hours of un-paid work and you might think he was lucky to avoid a jail sentence.
He consistently failed to turn up for work, despite having additional hours imposed and being given the stark and unequivocal warning that further breaches of the order would result in it being revoked and him being sent to prison.
After more failures to comply with the order the Probation Service finally lost patience with him and summoned him to court for revocation and re-sentence.
He didn’t attend court and it took a warrant without bail to ensure his attendance. In court the Probation Officer expressed the opinion that he had no confidence that this individual would carry out any form of community-based punishment.
The order was duly revoked and he was re-sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment, again a rather lenient sentence giving the circumstances.
He duly appealed the sentence and appeared before a judge in the Crown Court who promptly quashed the prison sentence and, despite the Probation Service’s reservations, re-imposed the un-paid work order but cut it in half, leaving him with a sentence less that he got for the original offence and ignoring the contempt with which he’d treated the previous order.
I have no idea what thoughts were going through the judge’s mind but I do know that justice, the rule of law and the protection of the public were concepts not amongst them. If anyone can equate for me His Honour’s decision with these ideals and the circumstances of this case then I’d be greatly obliged for I confess I don’t understand it, and I doubt I ever will.
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