Miscellaneous amendments to sentencing guidelines 2024
Shop theft and Benefit fraud guidelines
The issue
Following the addition in April 2024 of a new mitigating factor ‘Difficult and/or deprived background or personal circumstances’ to most offence specific sentencing guidelines, some magistrates queried how this factor relates to the mitigating factor of ‘Offender experiencing exceptional financial hardship’ in the Theft from a shop or stall guideline.
The latter factor reflects the fact that for the offence of shop theft in particular, the offending may be motivated by extreme hardship, for example stealing food when unable to pay for it. It differs from the new factor ‘Difficult and/or deprived background or personal circumstances’, in that it specifically relates to the offender’s circumstances at the time of the offence rather than more generally. There is a similar factor in the Benefit fraud guideline: ‘Offender experiencing significant financial hardship or pressure at time fraud was committed due to exceptional circumstances’.
There is no expanded explanation for the ‘exceptional circumstances’ factors.
The proposed change
In order to clarify how the factors relating to financial hardship in the shop theft and benefit fraud guideline should be applied, the Council proposes:
- Rewording the factor in the theft from a shop or stall guideline to: ‘Offender experiencing exceptional financial hardship at the time the theft was committed’
- Adding an expanded explanation (as a dropdown) to the factors in both guidelines which reads:
Care should be taken to avoid double counting factors including those already taken into account in assessing culpability or harm
Where the offence was motivated by circumstances arising out of exceptional and immediate financial hardship, this may be relevant to the offender’s responsibility for the offence.
This factor may apply independently of or in conjunction with the wider factor of ‘Difficult and/or deprived background or personal circumstances’
The impact
These changes are designed to clarify rather than to change practice and therefore no impact on prison or probation resources is anticipated.