BL-2021-002235 - [2025] EWHC 2367 (Ch)

In principle, therefore, I conclude that, on the face of it, the appropriate sentence of the court for the contempts committed by the respondent is that of sixteen weeks’ imprisonment on each count. I need next to consider whether the custodial sentence for each count should be consecutive or served concurrently. Each of the two counts refers to a distinct occasion on which there was a breach of the injunction. They were made, in lengthy written documents, several months apart. It is not the kind of case where several offences are committed upon a single location, or in close proximity. The respondent had time, after the first occasion, to think carefully before doing something similar again. And he did so.

Secondly, whereas the first document was sent only to officers of the applicant company, the second was distributed more widely in the marketplace. So, the effect of the offence on the second occasion was actually more serious than the first. In my judgment, it is appropriate that the sentence of the court should be 16 weeks’ imprisonment on each count consecutively, amounting to 32 weeks in total.