>#Judge can’t jail violent lorry driver because there’s no space in prison
>Matt Dathan, Home Affairs Editor
>Friday January 13 2023, 12.01am GMT, The Times
>A violent offender who was facing a prison sentence was spared jailed yesterday because the court had been told there was no room for him.
>District Judge Stephen Leake told Medway magistrates’ court that he wanted to jail Fabian Greco, a lorry driver, for 18 weeks after he was convicted of attacking another trucker.
>However, the judge said he would suspend the sentence for two years because it was his first offence and prisons were full.
>He said that courts had been issued with guidance from the government to “relieve the pressure on the prison estates as much as possible” due to a lack of spare capacity.
>Before Christmas the Ministry of Justice activated Operation Safeguard, under which it asks to use police cells to accommodate prisoners. Last month there were only 1,200 empty cells.
>Sentencing Greco, Leake said: “The prisons are full and Operation Safeguard guidance was issued to the courts to relieve the pressure on the prison estate as much as possible as people were having to stay and be held in police stations.”
>However, government sources said it was “nonsense” to declare the prison estate full. They said that the plan to use police cells had not yet been needed because spare capacity had opened up over Christmas.
>Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, accused the government of allowing criminals to avoid prison by presiding over a “chaotic” justice system. He said: “It is shocking that this Conservative government has left dangerous criminals to roam our streets because they recklessly cut the number of cells they should be locked up in.
>“The Tories got rid of more than 10,000 prison cells since 2010, but Dominic Raab [the justice secretary] couldn’t care less because, after an avalanche of bullying allegations, he is more focused on the fight to save his job than the fight against crime. Labour is the party of law and order and will stand up for victims.”
>A Conservative Party source said: “We won’t take any lessons from the Labour Party, who released over 80,000 criminals early because they didn’t have enough prison places.”
>Greco was charged with assault by beating and admitted the offence when he appeared before magistrates on January 5. The court was told that he was followed back to his yard in Dartford, Kent, by William Harrington after a road rage incident on May 24.
>After confronting Harrington, Greco punched him to the floor and continued to attack him before others came to pull the pair apart. Harrington was unable to work for several weeks after the attack. His jaw had been dislocated and there was blood in his urine for several days.
>Matthew Coxall, for the defence, said Greco, 29, was remorseful about the incident and had been given a written warning by his company, where he had worked for six years.
>He was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay his victim £1,500 in compensation.
>The Ministry of Justice denied that judges had been given guidance not to hand down custodial sentences.
Perhaps we need a new level of prisons, somewhere between community service and jail, to deal with people who should be kept in check but not necessarily needing confinement
In these situations, I feel a massive fine and community service should be an adequate alternative…
The difference between a judge giving a suspended sentence and telling the offender that this will alleviate the pressure on the prison services, and a judge being unable to confine a violent offender because prisons are full, is huge.
Problem is that when new prison facilities are proposed, the NIMBY brigade come out in force. And the fact is that new prison buildings are desperately needed, given that existing prison facilities are massively over their original capacity and are also often not maintained to an adequate standard either.
Blame Serco and G4S. They’re running most of the prisons. Private companies deliberately drive prisons into the ground because they know the Tories and red tops will throw red meat to their lizard brain supporters about how prisoners deserve nothing short of hanging, and then when anything goes wrong, Serco and G4S turn around and say ‘Not our problem, squire. Blame the government.’ Then the Tories turn around and say ‘Not our problem, squire. Blame the Opposition.’ and nothing changes except Churchill’s disgusting fatberg of a grandson is paid an extra eleventy-million quid of taxpayers money.
‘gud Fing We aV Duh Partee Ov Loor Un Ordah iNn Powarh’
– Median Voter
As long as he’s banned from driving, for life, the suspended sentence should do the job to be fair.
The prison situation is appalling, another notch on the Tory bedpost of incompetence, but given how badly run they are, locking him up will only increase the risk of him getting addicted to smack or something (happens a LOT in prison – more come out than go in) and a suspended sentence doesn’t mean he got off with it, not by a long shot.
I just really really hope he has a lifetime driving ban, at least for HGVs.
Drug reforms with retroactive action would help solve this issue. A good few kids caught with a small grow room will be taking up some of these cells when they could be used for pedos and rapists.
9 comments
>#Judge can’t jail violent lorry driver because there’s no space in prison
>Matt Dathan, Home Affairs Editor
>Friday January 13 2023, 12.01am GMT, The Times
>A violent offender who was facing a prison sentence was spared jailed yesterday because the court had been told there was no room for him.
>District Judge Stephen Leake told Medway magistrates’ court that he wanted to jail Fabian Greco, a lorry driver, for 18 weeks after he was convicted of attacking another trucker.
>However, the judge said he would suspend the sentence for two years because it was his first offence and prisons were full.
>He said that courts had been issued with guidance from the government to “relieve the pressure on the prison estates as much as possible” due to a lack of spare capacity.
>Before Christmas the Ministry of Justice activated Operation Safeguard, under which it asks to use police cells to accommodate prisoners. Last month there were only 1,200 empty cells.
>Sentencing Greco, Leake said: “The prisons are full and Operation Safeguard guidance was issued to the courts to relieve the pressure on the prison estate as much as possible as people were having to stay and be held in police stations.”
>However, government sources said it was “nonsense” to declare the prison estate full. They said that the plan to use police cells had not yet been needed because spare capacity had opened up over Christmas.
>Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, accused the government of allowing criminals to avoid prison by presiding over a “chaotic” justice system. He said: “It is shocking that this Conservative government has left dangerous criminals to roam our streets because they recklessly cut the number of cells they should be locked up in.
>“The Tories got rid of more than 10,000 prison cells since 2010, but Dominic Raab [the justice secretary] couldn’t care less because, after an avalanche of bullying allegations, he is more focused on the fight to save his job than the fight against crime. Labour is the party of law and order and will stand up for victims.”
>A Conservative Party source said: “We won’t take any lessons from the Labour Party, who released over 80,000 criminals early because they didn’t have enough prison places.”
>Greco was charged with assault by beating and admitted the offence when he appeared before magistrates on January 5. The court was told that he was followed back to his yard in Dartford, Kent, by William Harrington after a road rage incident on May 24.
>After confronting Harrington, Greco punched him to the floor and continued to attack him before others came to pull the pair apart. Harrington was unable to work for several weeks after the attack. His jaw had been dislocated and there was blood in his urine for several days.
>Matthew Coxall, for the defence, said Greco, 29, was remorseful about the incident and had been given a written warning by his company, where he had worked for six years.
>He was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and to pay his victim £1,500 in compensation.
>The Ministry of Justice denied that judges had been given guidance not to hand down custodial sentences.
Perhaps we need a new level of prisons, somewhere between community service and jail, to deal with people who should be kept in check but not necessarily needing confinement
In these situations, I feel a massive fine and community service should be an adequate alternative…
The difference between a judge giving a suspended sentence and telling the offender that this will alleviate the pressure on the prison services, and a judge being unable to confine a violent offender because prisons are full, is huge.
Problem is that when new prison facilities are proposed, the NIMBY brigade come out in force. And the fact is that new prison buildings are desperately needed, given that existing prison facilities are massively over their original capacity and are also often not maintained to an adequate standard either.
Blame Serco and G4S. They’re running most of the prisons. Private companies deliberately drive prisons into the ground because they know the Tories and red tops will throw red meat to their lizard brain supporters about how prisoners deserve nothing short of hanging, and then when anything goes wrong, Serco and G4S turn around and say ‘Not our problem, squire. Blame the government.’ Then the Tories turn around and say ‘Not our problem, squire. Blame the Opposition.’ and nothing changes except Churchill’s disgusting fatberg of a grandson is paid an extra eleventy-million quid of taxpayers money.
‘gud Fing We aV Duh Partee Ov Loor Un Ordah iNn Powarh’
– Median Voter
As long as he’s banned from driving, for life, the suspended sentence should do the job to be fair.
The prison situation is appalling, another notch on the Tory bedpost of incompetence, but given how badly run they are, locking him up will only increase the risk of him getting addicted to smack or something (happens a LOT in prison – more come out than go in) and a suspended sentence doesn’t mean he got off with it, not by a long shot.
I just really really hope he has a lifetime driving ban, at least for HGVs.
Drug reforms with retroactive action would help solve this issue. A good few kids caught with a small grow room will be taking up some of these cells when they could be used for pedos and rapists.