REGINA v SHAUN COOPER

The totality principle requires the sentencing court to assess the sentence that would have been imposed had related offences been dealt with together, and to ensure that the aggregate sentence is just and proportionate. A broadly similar approach may be appropriate where offences pre-date an earlier sentence, even if the offender has since been released. Persistent and sophisticated “Hanoi burglaries” involving high-value vehicles justify substantial deterrent sentences. Age, delay, progress in custody and other mitigation do not warrant appellate interference where the resulting sentence is not manifestly excessive.

The appellant was sentenced by the Crown Court at Shrewsbury on 13 May 2021 to four years’ imprisonment for conspiracy to commit burglary, with a concurrent three-year sentence for conspiracy to commit theft. The conspiracies concerned four Shropshire burglaries involving the theft of car keys, high-value vehicles and other property.

He appealed against sentence on the ground that insufficient credit had been given for his age, the age of the offences, his progress during an earlier custodial sentence and other mitigation. The central issue was whether the judge’s notional aggregate sentence of six and a half years, had all the offending been sentenced together, was excessive.

1. Appeal dismissed. The four-year sentence was not manifestly excessive.
2. The totality guideline requires the court to consider the sentence that would have been imposed if the offences had been dealt with at the same time. The court must then ensure that the total sentence is just and proportionate, making an adjustment to the sentence for the latest offences where necessary.
3. Although the appellant had been released eight months before sentence and was not still serving his earlier sentence, the sentencing judge was entitled, on the facts, to adopt a broadly similar totality approach. Deducting the whole of the earlier two-and-a-half-year sentence was generous, particularly because the two periods of offending were separated by seven months and the later offences were committed while the appellant was subject to a community order.
4. Hanoi burglaries involve serious inherent aggravating features. Where the offending is persistent, sophisticatedly planned and directed at high-value vehicles, long deterrent sentences are to be expected. The four burglaries also involved invasions of occupied homes and thefts of property from within them.
5. The judge’s notional assessment of six and a half years for all the offending was not wrong. The appellant’s age, the age of the offences, his progress in custody and the other mitigating matters relied upon did not make the sentence manifestly excessive.

1. Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) dismissed the appellant’s appeal against sentence.
2. Crown Court at Shrewsbury sentenced the appellant on 13 May 2021 to four years’ imprisonment, with a concurrent three-year sentence.