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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions >> Ajayi & Anor , R. v [2017] EWCA Crim 1011 (13 July 2017) URL: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Crim/2017/1011.html Cite as: [2018] 2 Cr App R (S) 1, [2018] 4 WLR 42, [2017] WLR(D) 496, [2017] EWCA Crim 1011 |
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2017] EWCA Crim 1011 | ||
2017/00761/A1 & 2016/05785/A2 |
CRIMINAL
DIVISION
The Strand London WC2A 2LL |
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2017 |
B e f o r e :
MS JUSTICE RUSSELL DBE
and
THE RECORDER OF WESTMINSTER
(Her Honour Judge Taylor)
(Sitting as a Judge of the Court of Appeal
Criminal
Division)
____________________
| R E G I N A | ||
| - v - | ||
| RICHARD AJAYI | ||
| KAI LIMBY |
____________________
Wordwave International Ltd trading as DTI
165 Fleet Street, London EC4A 2DY
Telephone No: 020 7404 1400; Fax No 020 7404 1424
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
Mr M Lefteris appeared on behalf of the Applicant Kai Limby
Mr D Wilson appeared on behalf of the Crown in the case of Richard Ajayi
Mr J Kellam appeared on behalf of the Crown in the case of Kai Limby
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
LORD JUSTICE TREACY:
Crime
Agency in its National Strategic Assessment of Serious and Organised
Crime
2016, at paragraph 128, which states:
"Urban Street Gangs (USGs) continue to play an important role in the distribution of Class A drugs (heroin and crack cocaine) into county and coastal towns outside the major big cities where they normally operate. In these scenarios, groups from large cities are taking control of local markets outside the city, supplying high-frequency deliveries of mid-market quantities. This form ofcriminality
almost always involves the exploitation of children and vulnerable adults coerced to assist with accommodation and supply."
Crime
Agency's NCA Intelligence Assessment, published on 12th August 2015.
crime
above and beyond that in ordinary street dealing, so that judges should pay particularly close attention to the assessment of role and the offender's place within a category range. Equally, those who work within such an operation and who seek to have a lesser role ascribed to them, should expect to have those claims (based, for example, on coercion or lack of awareness of the scale of the operation) examined with care.
crime,
seriously damaging individuals and society, and should continue to be recognised as such. However, the added sophistication of cuckooing operations reflects a further degree of
criminality,
which judges should be astute to recognise, and to reflect in a particularly careful examination of the three roles by which culpability in drug supply offending is assessed.
EWCA
Crim
552, [2016] 2 Cr App R(S) 28, are established.
2017
of two counts of offering to supply heroin, two counts of offering to supply cocaine, and two counts of possession of, respectively, heroin and cocaine, with intent to supply. On the same day, the judge passed concurrent sentences of six and a half years' imprisonment on each count. There was a further count alleging possession of cannabis, which had been admitted, attracting a concurrent one month sentence.
"I was driven to the area. I had never been to Portsmouth. I was only there as I owed money to an older person. He said I had to do this and he is not someone I could say not to. He left me in the house. I would not have expected to receive any money for doing it, just reducing my debt."
Criminal
Behaviour Order, and two other offences involving failures to comply with a court order, as well as three offences of possession of Class B drugs.
Criminal
Behaviour Order to which the applicant was subject at the time derived from his gang associations. The author of the pre-sentence report expressed some concern that the applicant's mental health appeared to have declined. A Youth Rehabilitation Order was proposed, notwithstanding the failure of a previous such order.
criminal
record and of the observation of the author of the pre-sentence report that, apart from custodial sentences and fines, the applicant has never complied with any court order. In our judgment, given the nature of this offending, which this applicant clearly knew was unlawful and harmful, and given his previous record and his previous lack of response to a series of non-custodial attempts to divert him from
criminal
activity, the judge was wholly justified in passing an immediate custodial sentence.
criminal
record and also the fact that his involvement in this matter arose from his own clearly
criminal associations. For an adult in this role a sentence of about four years' custody would be appropriate, after a trial, but before credit for mitigation and a guilty plea. In this applicant's case, the mitigation consists of his youth and his mental difficulties. Thereafter, full credit is due for a guilty plea. Making appropriate allowance for all those factors, we are not persuaded that a final sentence of a two-year Detention and Training Order was manifestly excessive, or arguably so.