Sentencing Advisory Panel Publish Recommendations
The Sentencing Advisory Panel (SAP) has published its recommendations to the Sentencing Guideline Council on how to reform sentencing guidelines for certain retail crimes, including theft from a shop and dishonesty offences. The SAP has been working on these for over a year and a half and ACS responded to their original consultation. The Council will announce at a later date whether they have decided to adopt some or all of the suggestions.
The SAP’s proposals have been toned down from what was originally feared, and prosecution still remains the ultimate sanction for shop thieves. The SAP proposed:
• That the starting point for theft from a shop without any aggravating features should be a non-custodial sentence such as a fine or community order.
• For aggravated shop theft, such as one that causes injury or when the offender has already been banned from the store, custodial sentencing should be the starting point.
• SAP advises that there should be recognition that shop theft perpetrated against a small and independent store may cause a greater level of harm than theft carried out against larger stores and that this should be considered when sentencing.
• According the SAP’s assessment on the impact their proposals, these suggestions would result in 60% of sentences remaining the same for shop theft, 20% of sentences becoming more severe and 20% becoming more lenient.
On offences relating to theft and dishonesty (such as theft by an employee), SAP will be revising the sentencing guidelines to reflect the realities of sentences and the full range of sanctions available. SAP wants a community order to be used instead of custody on all sentences under 12 months. SAP also believes that the greater the degree of trust that has been broken the higher the sentence band used.
SAP also suggests that additional sanctions are used to punish drive-offs, where for example a driver leaves without paying for his fuel. They are calling for driving licences to be suspended, something ACS argued strongly for in the original consultation.