The Court of Appeal has quashed and reimposed sentences imposed on David Fagan for six robberies and related offences, changing the date from which the sentences run to July 20, 2017. The court said the change was an error-of-principle correction and calculated that, assuming standard remission, it would move his expected release from early summer 2022 to early December 2020. Prison authorities must calculate the precise date.
Fagan had pleaded guilty to offences across four indictments: six robberies, one attempted robbery and three counts of producing an article. The offences involved knives or a broken bottle and occurred at service stations and convenience stores in Dublin between September 2016 and July 2017. The sentencing judge imposed concurrent three-year terms in most cases, with the sentence on the July 2017 bill consecutive to the sentence on the September 2016 bill because those offences were committed while Fagan was on bail. Eighteen months of that consecutive sentence was suspended.
Fagan appealed the severity of the sentences. His counsel argued that the sentencing judge had not adequately recognised his time in custody and progress toward rehabilitation, including negative drug tests and a place offered at a residential treatment centre. The prosecution argued the sentences were appropriate, given the number and seriousness of the offences and Fagan’s previous convictions.
The appeal court found the sentencing judge had not made a firm promise about how the sentences would be structured or that Fagan would be released immediately for treatment. It nevertheless considered the judge’s earlier remarks may have led him to believe the remaining sentence would be suspended, and took that perceived grievance into account. The court also said the original sentences were at the lenient end of the judge’s discretion and that it would not suspend any further part of them.
The court agreed, however, that the sentences should have been backdated to July 20, 2017, when Fagan entered custody. It reasoned that the separate prosecution of a related Clane robbery in Naas was due to geography and local jurisdiction, and that the sentences in the present cases would likely have run from that date if the matters had been heard together. It quashed the original sentences and reimposed them identically, except for the backdating change. The 18-month suspension and its conditions remain; matters previously taken into consideration remain so. The court made no further order and said no new bond was required.