[2025] EWCA Crim 1172

This is the hearing of a renewed application for leave to appeal against sentence, and for an extension of time of three years eight months and eight days in which to renew the application for leave to appeal against sentence, following refusal by the single judge. The main basis for the extension of time is that the Legal Ombudsman had found that the applicant had been the subject of inadequate representation in respect of the advice given to him on his guilty plea, and that while that was being explored, the other grounds in relation to sentence which had originally been proposed were not renewed. It is contended so far as the inadequate legal advice was concerned, that the applicant lost the ability to obtain credit of 33 per cent for his guilty plea, and had received only credit of 25 per cent for his plea. The difference of eight per cent on the sentence before discount for the guilty plea amounts to some two years and two months, because the sentence before discount for plea was 26 years, and a discount of 25 per cent gives a sentence of 19 years and six months. A discount for plea of 33 per cent would have given a sentence of 17 years and four months.

The applicant is now aged 37 years – nearly 38. He was born on 31 August 1987. He had, before these convictions, four convictions for seven offences He had received a community order for cultivating a Class B drug. He had not served a custodial sentence before.

On 24 July 2019, in the Crown Court at Liverpool, when he was then aged 31 years, he was represented by DPP Law and two individuals whom the applicant understood to be a solicitor and a barrister, but who were in fact a very experienced solicitor's clerk and a solicitor advocate. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to supply a Class A drug, two counts of possession of a prohibited firearm, and one count of possessing ammunition without a firearm certificate.

On 26 February 2020, when he was aged 32 years, he was sentenced to 13 years and six months' imprisonment for the conspiracy to supply controlled drugs (count 1); to a consecutive term of six years' imprisonment for the first count of possession of a firearm (count 2); to a concurrent term of six years' imprisonment for the second count of possession of a firearm (count 3); and to a concurrent term of three years' imprisonment for the possession of ammunition (count 4). The total sentence was one of 19 years and six months' imprisonment. Consequential orders were made. Proceeds of Crime Act proceedings led to an order for confiscation of some £109,535.