Matthew Harwozinski [2019] EWCA Crim 1195

This was a renewed application for leave to appeal against a sentence of life imprisonment with a minimum term of 11 years and 8 months, concurrent to determinate sentences totalling 21 years.

The applicant purchased handguns and blank firing ammunition from the Czech Republic with importations taking place over a 6 month period. The weapons were modified and supplied to the criminal underworld; several had been recovered. They had been discharged on a number of occasions, endangering life and on one occasion causing injury amounting to attempt murder. Seizure of weapons continued after his arrest, with links to violence and drugs.

The applicant’s counsel did not seek to dissuade the Court from a sentence based on dangerousness. The judge viewed the proper determinate sentence after trial as one of 30 years, which was discounted and halved to reach the minimum term. It was argued the provisional sentence was demonstrably too high.

Held: the applicant placed potentially 80 weapons and ample ammunition into the hands of dangerous people who were likely to, and indeed did, use them. The Court considered Stephenson [2016] 2 Cr App R (S) 12 and with submissions were persuaded that this was not a case where a provisional sentence of 30 years was appropriate.

The starting point should have been 25 years which reduced the minimum term to 9 years and 8 months. This had the effect that the term to be served for the determinate sentence would be longer than the minimum term, so those sentences were reduced to 18 years.