McGarrick [2019] EWCA Crim 530

The applicant pleaded guilty to fraud and assault by beating of an emergency worker and sentenced to 9 months imprisonment for the fraud, with 4 months to be served consecutively for the assault.

The fraud was committed on a male aged 97, the applicant sought to prolong a simple job to repair guttering and tried to get £200 from the victim. The police were called, and it was at that point he struck an officer to the face, falling to the floor with him as he was being arrested. The applicant had an extensive criminal record, mostly for dishonesty but also a number for violence.

The sentence for the fraud was not challenged. The single ground of appeal was that the notional sentence for the assault after trial was too high. It was a low-level injury on an officer causing pain and nothing else.

Held: the submissions were rejected, the applicant could not appeal against a discrete part of the sentence without a regard to the whole, the reliance on the assault guidelines was not apt, in particular a comparison to common assault. There were no existing guidelines to which resort can usefully be had by analogy, the sentence should be reviewed by reference to the overarching requirements that any sentence must be just and proportionate. That the sentences were consecutive was quite right, and the case clearly crossed the custody threshold bearing in mind the previous convictions. Leave to appeal was refused.