[2013] EWCA Crim 1563

Where a long-term drug user had pleaded guilty to an offence of possession of a Class A drug, the court was entitled, under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 Sch.12 Pt 2 para.8(4), to conclude that it would be unjust to impose a custodial term and to activate two suspended sentences imposed for similar offences where the offender had made real progress in relation to his drugs dependence and abstinence might realistically be achieved through a drug rehabilitation requirement. The case was exceptional and was not to be taken as having a wider significance.

CA (Crim Div) (Rix LJ, Wilkie J, Judge Wide QC)

20/02/2013