Why hasn't this guy been jailed or even his licence suspended?

[icowden]

Don't the CPS appeal light sentences?

An appeal can be made if it is believed to be unduly lenient. According to the Crown Court Sentencing Guidelines, he pled guilty to:

• causing serious injury by dangerous driving, presumably this was Culpability B Category 2. Starting point is 2 years custody
• assault occasioning actual bodily harm, could be A1 or A2 Starting point is 1 year 6 months.
• using threatening behaviour - probably B1 medium community order

The maximum the Judge could have awarded for the highest levels for all three offences would be 4 years for the assault and 5 years for the driving offence and 12 weeks for the threatening behaviour.

It looks like after the aggravating factors and mitigating factors were taken into account the Judge ended up with 3 years plus the community service, compensation and rehabilitation. The convenient ADHD diagnosis no doubt helped as well as the fact that none of the kids were seriously injured. Obviously he gets a third off for an early guilty plea, which takes him to two years custody. Given the likelihood of reoffending, the effect on the driver's family and probably the lack of prison places, the judge has chosen to suspend the sentence.

The sentence could be appealed if it were felt to be unduly lenient but it does have to be demonstrated that that Judge's interpretation of the sentencing guidelines was incorrect.

It would be interesting to read the Judgement.