The Court of Criminal Appeal has ruled that a three-year prison sentence imposed on Christopher Smith for a drug offence committed while he was on bail must follow an earlier theft sentence, not a sentence for a drug offence committed later.
In a judgment delivered on 31 July 2013, the court allowed Smith’s appeal on a new legal ground under section 11 of the Criminal Justice Act 1984. It held that the section requires a sentence for an offence committed on bail to run consecutively to a sentence for a “previous offence”—meaning an offence committed before the offence being sentenced, rather than any sentence imposed earlier in court.
Smith pleaded guilty in November 2010 to possessing cocaine contrary to section 15 of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1977. The offence was committed on 10 March 2007. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court sentenced him in December 2010 to three years in prison, to run consecutively to sentences imposed in 2009 for theft and a separate drug offence.
The theft was committed on 10 August 2006. The separate section 15A drug offence was committed on 18 August 2008. In 2009, Smith received three years for theft and a consecutive ten-year term for the section 15A offence, with the final seven years suspended on specified terms. The appeal court concluded that the 2007 offence was later than the theft but earlier than the section 15A offence. It therefore ordered the 2010 three-year term to follow the theft sentence.
Smith’s appeal also challenged the length and proportionality of the sentence, the sentencing judge’s treatment of his guilty plea and rehabilitation, and the judge’s comments about the timing of the plea. The appeal court dismissed those other grounds. It said the sentencing judge had considered Smith’s personal circumstances, rehabilitation and psychologist’s report, and that the sentence reflected his involvement and character.
The ruling changed which earlier sentence the three-year term was consecutive to. The judgment did not set out any further change to the three-year term itself.