Blackstock, R. v

When fixing the minimum term for an indeterminate sentence, the court must first identify an appropriate notional determinate sentence. That assessment must reflect the seriousness of the offences, the offender’s age, previous offending, the number of offences, and applicable totality. Credit for guilty pleas must then be given. The minimum term is one half of the resulting notional determinate term, subject to credit for time spent in custody.

The appellant, aged nearly 18 at sentence, pleaded guilty at Coventry Crown Court to two robberies committed six days apart. Both were planned robberies of convenience stores, carried out with balaclavas and weapons. He had a substantial record of previous offending.

The Recorder imposed imprisonment for public protection, with a minimum term of three years and nine months. The correct form of sentence was detention for public protection. The appellant did not challenge the indeterminate sentence, but appealed on the ground that the minimum term was manifestly excessive. The central issue was the proper notional determinate sentence and the credit due for the guilty pleas.

1. Appeal allowed. The minimum term of three years and nine months was manifestly excessive. The court substituted a minimum term of two years and three months, with the 78 days spent in custody to count towards it.

2. The Recorder had correctly treated the robberies as serious. They involved weapons, balaclavas, intimidation of shop staff, and two offences committed within a short period. The appellant’s extensive and escalating record was also material. The sentencing guidance did not provide a complete answer because it proceeded on the basis of a first-time offender committing a single offence.

3. However, a notional determinate sentence of either 10 years or eight years was too high. Having regard to the seriousness of the offences, the appellant’s youth and his previous offending, the appropriate post-trial sentence was six years’ detention in a young offender institution. The precise use of concurrent or consecutive terms did not affect that conclusion.

4. The appellant pleaded guilty substantially before trial and was entitled to 25 per cent credit. The Recorder had not allowed that credit: the apparent reduction from 10 to eight years reflected totality, rather than the pleas. Applying the credit reduced the notional determinate sentence to four years and six months. One half of that period produced the substituted minimum term of two years and three months.

5. The court also directed that the sentence be corrected in form from imprisonment for public protection to detention for public protection.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): allowed the appeal against the minimum term and substituted two years and three months.

• Coventry Crown Court: imposed imprisonment for public protection for two robberies and fixed a minimum term of three years and nine months.