Client Avoids Immediate Custody for Perverting the Course of Justice

Sonn Macmillan Walker client pleaded guilty to doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.  Those acts were giving his brother’s name when identifying himself at the commencement of an appeal (against conviction) by his brother and a company, of which he and his brother were directors.

Having wrongly identified himself as his brother and acting in person, he then proceeded to examine and cross examine witnesses and give evidence himself, as if he was his brother. Only after the appeal had concluded was it realised that our client had masqueraded as his brother.

The offence of perverting the course of justice invariably attracts a sentence of immediate imprisonment.  In this case, however, the Crown Court at Norwich imposed an eleven week suspended sentence and a requirement to perform 100 hours of unpaid work. This was due to our client’s strong personal mitigation and the fact that the Court accepted the submission that the case was one of lower culpability and category C harm on the sentencing guideline.

The case was prepared by David Sonn, who also appeared as advocate in the Crown Court.