Birmingham City Council v Paul & Ors

Deliberate and serious breaches of an injunction may justify immediate imprisonment where the custody threshold is crossed. Relevant aggravating features include highly dangerous conduct, extreme speed, acting together and deliberately flouting the order. Early admissions, remorse, the absence of previous breaches and personal mitigation may justify suspending the sentence. A suspended committal sentence may run for the remaining duration of the injunction and may be activated if a further breach is proved.

Birmingham City Council applied to commit three respondents for breaching an injunction prohibiting participation in, or the promotion and organisation of, street cruises within the City of Birmingham. Each respondent admitted knowingly breaching the injunction by racing a vehicle at speeds exceeding 130 miles per hour on public roads in wet and dark conditions.

The custody threshold was accepted to have been crossed. The issues were the length of imprisonment and whether the sentences should be immediate or suspended in light of the respondents’ mitigation.

1. Sentence. Each respondent’s conduct constituted a serious and highly irresponsible breach of the injunction. Driving at speeds exceeding 130 miles per hour, particularly in wet and dark conditions and on roads subject to lower speed limits because of road works, was reckless and positively dangerous.
2. The respondents acted together with a common purpose of deliberately flouting the injunction. That was an aggravating feature.
3. The appropriate sentence for each breach, absent mitigation, was nine months’ imprisonment. The court reduced this to six months because each respondent admitted the substance of the allegations at the first available opportunity, had no previous breaches or criminal record, and expressed remorse.
4. By a narrow margin, the six-month sentences were suspended for the balance of the injunction, namely until 24 October 2019. The suspension was conditional on future compliance with the injunction.
5. Any further proved breach would activate the suspended sentence, in addition to any sentence imposed for the further breach. Each respondent was also ordered to pay £750 towards the Council’s costs within 14 days.