What really happens when you breach your suspended sentence…

Welcome to Week 4 of the court visit breakdown!

A little bit of backstory:

  • Again, I attended Crown Court (this is where the more interesting cases happen)

  • This was a breach of a suspended sentence, as they failed to attend two days of unpaid work

  • This was around a 30-45-minute-long court proceeding

So, this week I walked into Crown Court 1 and sat in the public gallery. I rose as the judge entered and began observing.

Initially, the defence apologised to the judge as the defendant had been late to court (this is important in order to stay on good terms with the judge). Following this the prosecution started.

Now as the defendant had already had his trial where he received a 24 month custodial sentence, which was then suspended for 24 months, most of the next steps and communication with the defendant go through probation. Therefore, at this hearing the prosecution was somewhat acting on behalf of probation.

From the initial trial, the requirements for the defendant’s suspended sentence are:

  • The completion of a Building Better Choices course (designed to reduce the chance of reoffending)

  • 220 hours of unpaid work (this was later adjusted)

  • 10 RAR days

The prosecution explained that their stance alongside probation, is that the judge adds more hours onto the unpaid work that the defendant is required to do, and for the defendant to pay £350 in expenses.

The defence than agreed with the prosecution in that hours should be added onto the defendant’s unpaid work, rather than be sent back to prison. They argued that this was the defendants first breach of their sentence, the reason they had missed the hours of unpaid work, was because they were focused on getting doctors’ appointments to sort out their diabetes medication, and currently they had completed 99 hours of unpaid work which is nearly half of the requirements (with adjustments).

The judge then considered what both the defence and prosecution had argued. The judge’s first response is that a breach of a suspended sentence results in the defendant being put in prison. This will not happen if the court deem it unjust. The judge concluded that it would be unjust to activate the custodial sentence. He explained that this was the defendants first breach and felt he had fairly valid reasons as to why the breach occurred. Furthermore, he felt that where 99 hours of unpaid work had already been completed, it was clear the defendant was willing to complete the suspended sentence without argument. He did question as to why the defendant had not yet started the BBC course or the 10 RAR days, however, it was confirmed that the required steps had not yet been taken by probation, to decide the dates in which the 10 RAR days are to be completed, nor filled out the application for the course. As the judge was reassured that neither of these decisions lie with the defendant, and actually the defendant had done all he was able to do at that time (which was completing the unpaid work), he felt sending the defendant to prison would be unjust.

However, the judge was still required to give some sort of punishment for the breach of the suspended sentence, therefore, he added 10 more hours of unpaid work onto the sentence, as well as £100 in expenses to be paid over 10 months (when deciding the expenses, the judge did acknowledge that the defendant does not have a job)

This I felt was an informative proceeding today, particularly in accordance with the previous suspended sentence I had observed during week 2. It is interesting to see the thought process that goes into the activation of suspended sentences, and it seems that often the judge will oppose slightly to sending the defendant back to prison. Could this be to do with the Prison Capacity Crisis at the moment… (some food for thought)

See you next week!