R v Bradley Cooke

A sentencing court must publicly pronounce credit for time spent on bail subject to a qualifying curfew. The curfew period is discounted by 50 per cent under section 325 of the Sentencing Act 2020.

Where an offender was under 21 when sentenced, the custodial sentence must be expressed as detention in a young offender institution, consistently with section 227 of that Act. The Court of Appeal may correct both errors on an appeal against sentence.

The appellant pleaded guilty in the Crown Court at Durham to possessing a prohibited firearm and possessing ammunition without a certificate, contrary to the Firearms Act 1968. At age 20, he received concurrent terms of five years’ imprisonment.

His application for leave to appeal was 642 days late. It was referred to the Full Court because the sentencing court had not pronounced qualifying-curfew credit and had described the custodial sentences as imprisonment rather than detention in a young offender institution. The central issue was the correction required for those sentencing errors.

1. The court granted an extension of time and leave to appeal, and allowed the appeal against sentence.

2. The appellant had served 220 days on bail subject to a qualifying curfew. The sentencing court was required to pronounce the resulting credit. In accordance with R v Thorsby [2015] EWCA Crim 1 and R v Marshall [2015] EWCA Crim 1999, the curfew period was to be discounted by 50 per cent. Section 325 of the Sentencing Act 2020 contained the statutory basis for that reduction. The proper reduction was therefore 110 days.

3. Because the appellant was 20 when sentenced, section 227 of the Sentencing Act 2020 required the custodial terms to be expressed as detention in a young offender institution rather than imprisonment.

4. The concurrent sentences on counts 1 and 2 were amended to detention in a young offender institution for five years less 110 days on each count.

• Court of Appeal (Criminal Division): In [2025] EWCA Crim 650, the court granted leave and an extension of time, allowed the sentence appeal, and corrected the curfew-credit and young-offender-institution errors.

• Crown Court at Durham: On 12 May 2023, HHJ Kidd sentenced the appellant to concurrent five-year custodial terms following guilty pleas to firearm and ammunition offences.