Callum Connerty [2019] EWCA Crim 1661

The appellant pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to 5 years’ imprisonment. The main target of the robbery was an ATM machine in a convenience store in which the offenders were armed, and the shop worker was threatened.

Held: “the many aggravating factors identified by the judge justified him passing a sentence at the very top of the medium culpability range, which overlaps with the lower end of the higher culpability range, and indeed is above the starting point in that higher range”. The appropriate notional sentence after trial would have been one of 6 years. After full credit for a guilty plea that would produce a sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment.  The sentence of 5 years was quashed, and a sentence of 4 years’ imprisonment substituted.