[2002] EWCA Crim 26

When sentencing a mother of previous good character and with young children for obtaining services by deception, a community sentence rather than a prison sentence was normally appropriate. In a borderline case the sentencer should consider, as well as issues such as the effect on the children, the difficulties created by the growing female prison population. Where imprisonment was necessary the minimum sentence possible should normally be imposed.

CA (Crim Div) (Lord Woolf of Barnes LCJ, Mitchell J, Keith J)

14/01/2002