Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My concerns are with Clause 12(5), which inserts new subsection (1A)(b) into Section 151 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. The clause states: "““Where the current offence is not punishable with imprisonment, subsection (2) applies where … on three or more previous occasions the offender has, on conviction by a court in the United Kingdom of any offence committed by him after attaining the age of 16, had passed on him a sentence consisting only of a fine””." In other words, if three less serious matters are dealt with by means of a fine, the court can impose a community sentence but, if there have been more serious offences in the past, it cannot. So if we are dealing with an offence that is non-imprisonable, magistrates can impose a community order only if matters are aggravated by three previous fines, rather than more serious sentences. For example, if an offender has been fined for three previous drunk and disorderly offences, the magistrates can impose a community penalty. However, if an offender has been the subject of a community order for a Section 5 Public Order Act offence, magistrates cannot impose another community order for a repeat similar serious offence. This means, inevitably, that a more serious offence may receive only a less serious disposal. It would also mean that offences that are similar in seriousness might receive different levels of disposal, depending on the sentences previously given. That is not sensible. How does it fit with the fact that previous convictions of all types aggravate seriousness? This is another example of the Government trying to remove the discretion of a judge. There are a whole range of factors that the court would wish to take into account before determining whether or not to make a community order. In our submission, it must be a matter for the court at its judicial discretion to say how serious a particular offence is and to mark that with a community order if appropriate.