On 21 September 2023, Jordan Santos-Sindes appeared in the Court of Appeal Criminal Division for Mr Thomas, the Appellant, in an appeal against sentence. The Appellant had received a sentence of 5 years 4 months’ imprisonment for a series of three dwelling burglaries committed on the same night, on the same street. The Appellant had significant previous convictions for like offences and was subject to the minimum term provisions. At the initial sentence hearing, the Judge had imposed consecutive sentences for two of the burglaries and only applied minimal credit for the Appellant’s early guilty plea.
The grounds of appeal were two-fold: i) that the Judge had erred by failing to properly take account of totality; and, ii) the Judge had not awarded sufficient credit. Permission to appeal was initially refused by the Single Judge, but this was renewed and permission was allowed.
The appeal was heard before the Full Court and the appeal was allowed in full. The Court held that the Judge had awarded too little credit and had not had proper regard to the principles of totality, leading to a sentence which was manifestly excessive. The Court substituted the original sentence with one of 4 years and 3months’ imprisonment. The Court extended their gratitude to Jordan for his submissions.
