R v Mahmood Hussain

Where a sentencing court imposes a determinate sentence on an offender who was remanded on bail subject to a qualifying electronically monitored curfew, Sentencing Act 2020 section 325 requires it to specify the statutory credit period. The court has no discretion to withhold credit or to specify fewer days than the credit period.

If the sentencing court omits the direction and the relevant 56-day period has expired, the error cannot be corrected under the slip rule. An application to the Court of Appeal is required.

The appellant received four years and six months’ imprisonment at the Crown Court at Burnley for assisting unlawful immigration to a Member State. Before sentence, he had been granted bail subject to an electronically monitored curfew from 8.00 pm to 7.00 am each night.

Neither advocate drew the qualifying curfew to the sentencing judge’s attention. No direction was made under section 325 of the Sentencing Act 2020. The omission was discovered after the time for correction had passed, and the appellant sought an extension of time and leave to appeal sentence.

The issue was whether 68 days’ credit for the tagged curfew should be directed to count towards the sentence.

1. Appeal allowed. The court granted a 242-day extension of time and leave to appeal sentence. It ordered that 68 days count towards the appellant’s sentence.

2. Section 325 of the Sentencing Act 2020 required the sentencing court, when imposing a determinate sentence in the stated circumstances, to specify the credit period for the purposes of section 240A of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The appellant had been remanded on bail subject to a qualifying electronically monitored curfew. The agreed statutory credit period was 68 days.

3. The court followed Hoggard [2013] EWCA Crim 1024. There is no discretion either to omit the direction or to give credit for fewer days than the statutory credit period.

4. The court also followed Marshall [2015] EWCA Crim 1999. Once 56 days had expired after the omission, it could not be corrected under the slip rule; an application to the Court of Appeal was necessary.

5. The certificate of conviction was amended to record a sentence of 54 months less 68 days, certified under section 325.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) — allowed the appeal against sentence, granted an extension of time and directed 68 days’ credit: [2025] EWCA Crim 274.
• Crown Court at Burnley — on 15 April 2024 imposed a total sentence of four years and six months’ imprisonment, without a direction under section 325 of the Sentencing Act 2020.