PF v Thomas Flannigan

An appellant has successfully appealed his sentence and received a reduction in his custodial sentence. Mr Flannigan appealed against his sentence in relation to a statutory breach of the peace. The appellant pled guilty at the Trial diet and was sentenced to 170 days in prison. Three months before the plea the sheriff has imposed a Restriction of Liberty order on the appellant and G4S had presented two breach reports in this respect.

The appellant admitted these two breaches on May 10th the same day as he pled guilty to the s38. The sheriff considered that Mr Flannigan did not met the criteria for a community payback order so was sentenced to the 170 days imprisonment. The appellant appealed the sentence stating the sheriff sentence was too high as they did not consider that he had complied with the ROLO to a certain extent. The sheriff appeal court agreed to the part of the appeal and stated that the original sheriff’s assessment did not give due account to the number of days of compliance. Therefore, the appellant’s sentence was reduced to 135 days.