‘People concerned over crime sentencing should write to MP – as they make the laws’

Bedfordshire’s police and crime commissioner has said if residents have real concerns about sentencing guidelines they should write to their MP - as they make the laws.

Commissioner (PCC) Festus Akinbusoye was speaking during the Bedfordshire Criminal Justice Board’s annual meeting. (19/12)

Two residents had sent the Board questions on prosecution and sentencing, referencing crimes such as shoplifting and street robbery.

One of the residents said if offenders are caught they are just given a “slap on the wrist “and fined, before they go on to do it again.

Rose-Marie Franton, the chief crime prosecutor for Thames and Chiltern, said: “With charging, it’s either the police or the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service).

“The police can do the charging, usually in the more simple cases.

“Or where someone has indicated that they will plead guilty.

“Once we’ve made that charging decision, it is then for us to take the evidence from the police, look at it, sort it out, serve that evidence to the defence and to the court, and then we get into the court proceedings.

“It’s judges in the magistrates court, or in the crown court, who then consider how best to resolve the case, and that’s either with a guilty plea and sentence, or a trial.

“As prosecutors we don’t deal with [sentencing] that’s over to the judge.

“The judge will look at the personal mitigation of the individual that’s before him or her when sentencing to decide on the severity of the sentence,” she said.

Kate Somarakis, senior legal manager, HM Courts and Tribunals Service South East Legal Team, said: “When they’re making a decision on a sentence they have to apply national sentencing guidelines.

“They can change the decision but they have to give reasons why they’re departing from sentencing guidelines.

“And that’s to ensure that everybody has the same level of bar that needs to be reached,” she said.

“But what we do from the court’s perspective on sentencing, particularly when they’re very serious sentencing exercises, we have the professional input from probation who can then do risk assessments.

“They can have a look at domestic abuse markers, they can contact Social Services if there’s children involved.

“So we rely very much on the probation service to provide the court, the judiciary, with some recommendations as to what the most appropriate sentence would be,” she said.

The PCC suggested that anyone who is unhappy with the law or sentencing guidelines that they should write to their MP.

Adding the organisations represented at the board just enforce what the government puts into place.

Source

BCJM AGM 19/12/23 recording uploaded to YouTube 21/12 and viewed 22/12