[2009] EWCA Crim 1925

The court developed the sentencing guidelines for firearms offences in R. v Avis (Tony) [1998] 1 Cr. App. R. 420 to encompass cases of major seriousness involving the manufacture, importation, distribution or supply of firearms on a wide basis, in that for criminals involved in that level of gun crime, along with very lengthy determinative sentences, indeterminate sentences, whether discretionary imprisonment for life or imprisonment for public protection under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 s.225, would arise for consideration also. The court also gave guidance on the distinction between sentences of imprisonment for life and imprisonment for public protection where undue leniency was alleged and ruled that where a discretionary life sentence should have been imposed, then the court would intervene, following an application by the Attorney General, even in respect of a sentence of imprisonment for public protection, and replace it with life imprisonment.

CA (Crim Div) (Lord Judge LCJ, Butterfield J, Flaux J)

06/10/2009