Standard 9

Help with sentencing

We will help the court decide what sentence to give someone found guilty of a crime. We will try to take away any money a defendant has made from their crime.

9.1. It is the job of the court to decide what punishment (sentence) to give to a defendant.

We help the court to do this.

We give the court information to help them make the right decision.

9.2. Before the court hearing where the defendant is told what their sentence will be we:

1. Tell the Probation Service or Youth Offending Team what happened in the Court case.

   This helps them write a good pre-sentence report.

2. A Witness Care Officer asks the Victim if they want to make a Victim Personal Statement.

   If the Victim has already done this they are asked if they want to add anything to it.

3. Sometimes it is not clear what the sentence should be.

   If this happens we write a report for the court to tell them what they can do.

4. If we need to we write applications for things like Anti-social Behaviour Orders or Restraining Orders.

9.3. At the sentencing court hearing the Advocate:

1. Tells the court about the case.

   Makes sure the court knows if the defendant did things that make the crime worse. Things like doing the crime because you hate the victims (hate crime). This can be because of race, or being gay or because the person is old or disabled.

   The Advocate also makes sure the court knows if there was a good excuse for what the defendant did. This can be things like the defendant was unwell at the time of the crime.

2. When it is right the Advocate will give the court a list of other crimes the defendant wants to tell the court about.

   This will change the sentence.

3. Tells the court about other crimes the defendant did in the past.

   These are crimes that they have been charged with and found guilty.

   They also tell the court about any cautions the defendant has been given.

   They tell the court about crimes the defendant has done that are like the one he has just been found guilty of.

4. Tells the court the result of drugs tests at the police station.
5. Checks the pre-sentence reports are right.
6. If they are not right the Advocate tells the court.

9.4. The Advocate tells the court how the crime has affected the Victim:

1. By reading the Victim Personal Statement to the court.
2. If it is right the Advocate can ask the court to make the defendant give the victim money to repair some of the damage.
3. Tells the court about how the crime has affected the community

9.5. The court decides what sentence to give the defendant.

The Advocate helps the court think about all the things it could do.

1. The Advocate can ask the court to think about giving the defendant an ancillary order. Ancillary orders are things like Anti-social Behaviour Orders, driving bans and restraining orders.

   Ancillary orders can make it harder for the defendant to do the crime again. They can protect the victim.

2. The Advocate stands up to the defence lawyers if they say things that are not true or are hurtful to the victim in court.

   The defence lawyer may do this to try to make the sentence smaller for the defendant.

3. The Advocate can ask the court to destroy things like drugs or weapons that belong to the defendant, or were used in the crime.

4. The Advocate helps with sentencing by telling the court about the right sentencing guidelines.

   If a crime involves hate crime the sentence will be longer.

   The court must tell people how much longer the sentence is due to the hate crime.

5. The Advocate can help the court by telling them about the sentences they could pass.

9.6. The Advocate asks the court to make the defendant pay the cost of the trial.

The defendant can be made to pay part of the cost or all of the cost.

They do this when it is the right thing to do.

9.7. If we think the sentence is too easy we cannot ask the court to think again about it.

In some Crown Court cases we can ask the Attorney General to send the case to the Court of Appeal because the sentence is much too easy (unduly lenient).

We think about if we can do this after the sentencing hearing.

The Attorney General can also be asked to do this by victims or members of the public.

The Attorney General can decide to send cases to the Court of Appeal by herself.

The Attorney General must do this within 28 days.

9.8. A Witness Care Officer tells the victim and witnesses about the sentence.

They have to do this quickly.

They have to explain the sentence so that the victim and witnesses can understand it.

Taking away money made from crime

9.9. Sometimes we think a defendant has made money from crime.

To stop them using or hiding this money we ask the Judge to give them a Restraint Order.

The Restraint Order is sent to banks, building societies and other organisations.

This means that the defendant can't spend or move the money.

The Police and the courts help us make sure this happens.

9.10. We think about other cases.

We think about if the defendants have made money from other crimes.

We can ask the police to find out if the defendant has made a lot of money from crime.

If a defendant only has a little money it would cost more to go to court than we would get from the defendant.

If the defendant has made a lot of money from crime we will go to court to get a Restraint Order so they can't spend it or hide it.

9.11. When a defendant is found guilty of a crime and it seems right to take away the money made from crime, we talk to the court.

We ask the court to set a date for a court hearing (confiscation hearing) where we will ask them to take away the money made from crime.

This can take several months.

9.12. When we have a date for the Confiscation hearing we ask the police to find out how much money the defendant has.

9.13. Before the confiscation hearing we make a list.

We write down all the money, property and expensive things that the defendant has.

We send a copy of this list to the court and the defendant.

The court decides how much the defendant should pay.

9.14. People who work for the court usually have the job of getting the money from the defendant.

We do this job in hard cases.

Sometimes the court gives a person called a Receiver this job.

9.15. If a defendant tries not to pay us or takes a long time to pay we can go back to the court. The court has the power to make them pay.