Theft and Dishonesty Offences - Consultation Paper published
01 Nov 2006
The Panel is recommending that the starting point for judges considering sentences for offenders guilty of theft from the person in which the victim is an elderly or vulnerable person should be 18 months' imprisonment.
Where the offence involves stealing from an elderly person's home the starting point should be 36 weeks' imprisonment and if violence or the threat of violence is used the starting point should rise to 2 years in prison.
The proposals are made in the Panel's consultation paper on sentencing for theft and dishonesty offences. The paper has been prepared following a request from the Sentencing Guidelines Council for advice on sentencing for all offences of theft and dishonesty and deals with:
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theft in breach of trust;
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theft from the person;
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theft in a dwelling;
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burglary in a building other than a dwelling;
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making off without payment; and
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abstracting electricity.
It follows a paper published on 24 August 2006 which specifically dealt with the offence of theft from a shop. Consultation on other offences of dishonesty, including forgery and fraud, will follow next year.
Issues raised in the consultation include:
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the general assessment of seriousness of this type of offending behaviour;
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the degree to which sentence should be influenced, if at all, by the motivation for committing an offence;
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the value of goods stolen, voluntary cessation of offending, and the recovery or restitution of goods;
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the relevance of particular aggravating and mitigating factors;
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appropriate sentence starting points and ranges for each offence; and
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the circumstances in which it may be appropriate to impose ancillary orders, including restitution and compensation.
A number of questions are raised in the paper on which views are sought before the consultation ends on 24 January 2007.
For more information, contact Lesley Dix, Secretary to the Panel on 020 7084 8130.