REGINA v SCOTT PALMER & LEE PALMER

In sentence appeals, a loaded illegal firearm retained to facilitate drug dealing may properly be treated as high culpability. The risk created by keeping it where children may find it may justify a high harm category. An offender responsible for buying and selling drugs may have a leading role, notwithstanding arguments based on fine distinctions in guideline language about financial interest.

For planned false imprisonment involving restraints, violence, extortion and lasting psychological harm, a substantial starting point may be justified. Totality need not reduce a consecutive sentence for wholly separate offending. Dangerousness principally concerns the risk of serious harm to the public outside custody. An extended sentence under the Sentencing Act 2020 must be clearly attributable to the qualifying offence.

Scott Palmer and Lee Palmer renewed applications for permission to appeal against sentences imposed at the Crown Court at Snaresbrook on 8 November 2021.

Scott Palmer received five years for firearms offences and a consecutive four years for drug offences. For the false imprisonment of a debtors' victim, Scott Palmer received an extended sentence of ten years, comprising eight years' custody and a two-year licence extension. Lee Palmer received eight years for that false imprisonment.

The victim had been restrained, held overnight, assaulted and subjected to demands for payment. The applications challenged the firearms starting point, Scott Palmer's leading role in drug supply, the false-imprisonment starting point, mitigation, totality, dangerousness and the clarity of the extended sentence.

1. The renewed applications were refused. The firearms and drug sentences, the false-imprisonment sentences, and the decision to impose an extended sentence on Scott Palmer were not arguably manifestly excessive.

2. Scott Palmer's loaded pistol, kept with compatible ammunition while he conducted drug dealing, properly fell within high culpability under the applicable firearms guideline. Its availability in a freezer accessible to children created at least category 2 harm and potentially category 1 harm. A seven-year starting point was therefore open to the sentencing judge. The reduction to the statutory minimum of five years adequately reflected mitigation, totality and the late plea.

3. For the category 3 drug offence, Scott Palmer had a leading role. He bought and sold drugs and had a significant financial incentive. The absence of evidence that another person directed the operation reinforced that conclusion. The judge was entitled to adopt an eight-year starting point and reduce it to four years.

4. The planned false imprisonment involved cable ties, gaffer tape, prolonged detention, repeated assaults, extortionate demands and lasting psychological harm. A ten-year starting point was justified. The Court considered Attorney-General's Reference No 92 of 2014 (R v Danny Gibney) [2014] EWCA Crim 2713 and distinguished R v Osei [2018] EWCA Crim 2728; neither authority undermined that assessment. The 20% reduction to eight years adequately reflected the late pleas and mitigation, including Lee Palmer's age and progress in custody.

5. Totality did not require a further reduction for Scott Palmer. The firearms and drugs offending was wholly separate from the false imprisonment, occurred about two years earlier, and warranted consecutive sentences. Commission of the false imprisonment while still under investigation for the earlier offences was aggravating.

6. The pre-sentence report's assessment that Scott Palmer posed a high risk of serious harm, together with his firearms, drugs, violence and false-imprisonment offending, justified an extended sentence under section 279 of the Sentencing Act 2020. His conduct in prison did not materially displace the risk to the public outside custody. Although the sentencing remarks could have been clearer, the Court confirmed that the two-year licence extension attached only to the false-imprisonment offence. That sentence was ten years, comprising eight years' custody and two years' extended licence.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): Renewed applications for permission to appeal against sentence were refused in [2022] EWCA Crim 734. The court clarified the offence to which Scott Palmer's extended licence period attached.

• Crown Court at Snaresbrook: On 8 November 2021, HHJ Kamil sentenced Scott Palmer for firearms, drugs and false imprisonment, and sentenced Lee Palmer for false imprisonment.