Mehmeti [2019] EWCA Crim 751

A 10 month term of imprisonment was imposed following a guilty plea to possession of an identity document with improper intention. The appellant had been stopped driving a car and produced a counterfeit Portuguese driving licence before running away. In interview he admitted that he had entered the UK illegally as an Albanian citizen. He had a previous conviction for possession of criminal property for which he received 12 months’ imprisonment and he had asked for an offence of possession of an identity document with improper intention to be taken into consideration, that document was a Greek driving licence. He had been deported following the earlier conviction and re-entered, again, illegally and acquired another false driving licence.

The sentence was appealed as manifestly excessive and that it was out of line with sentences imposed in other cases. The decisions referred to were Hoxha [2012] EWCA Crim 1765 and Piccha [2014] EWCA Crim 2771.

Held: this was not a case where the document was used for immigration purposes but on the other hand this was not a case of an appellant of good character who was lawfully entitled to be in the UK. On the contrary, he had admitted a previous similar offence and been deported, he then re-entered the UK illegally and once again obtained a false licence to provide himself with some form of cover for the fact that he was not allowed to drive on the roads. Whilst the circumstances are “significantly more serious than those to which we have been referred” the judge’s post-trial figure of 15 months was considered to be too long, 9 months after trial would have sufficed. The sentence was quashed, and a sentence of 6 months’ imprisonment substituted.