‘Related’ or Merely ‘Connected’? Sending Summary Offences to the Crown Court: R v Merritt [2019] EWCA Crim 1514
| Published date | 01 February 2020 |
| Date | 01 February 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0022018320902545 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
Case Note
‘Related’ or Merely
‘Connected’? Sending
Summary Offences to the
Crown Court
R v Merritt [2019] EWCA Crim 1514
Keywords
Sending, summary offences, related offences, low-value shoplifting
Facts
On 15 October 2018 at around 6:20 pm, M stole confectionary valued at £16 from a shop at Newcastle
train station. The incident was reported to the police, who identified M from CCTV footage and arrested
him at 10:10 pm the same day. M was abusive and aggressive upon arrest and his ‘disruptive behaviour’
continued at the police station (at [6]). He repeatedly referred to one police officer as ‘fucking Paki’ (at
[6]). M was kept in custody overnight. The following morning, he urinated into a porridge carton and
threw the contents through his cell hatch, hitting another officer on the face and body. Later that day,
while being interviewed in his cell, M spat at a third police officer.
M was charged with theft, racially aggravated harassment and two counts of common assault. On 17
October, he elected Crown Court trial for the racially aggravated public order offence and that matter
was sent to the Crown Court in accordance with ss 51(1) and 51(2)(b) of the Crime and Disorder Act
(CDA) 1998. The offences of theft and common assault were sent under s 51(3)(b), as ‘related’ summary
offences.
All four offences were ultimately included in the indictment on which M was arraigned on 21
November 2018. M entered guilty pleas to all counts. The offences placed M in breach of a 16-week
suspended sentence. When M returned for sentence on 19 March 2019, the Recorder activated three
months of the suspended sentence and imposed consecutive sentences of 12 months’ imprisonment for
the racially aggravated offence, two months for the theft and four months for the first common assault.
A concurrent sentence of two months’ imprisonment was imposed for the second common assault,
making a total sentence of 21 months’ imprisonment.
The theft was a low-value shoplifting offence under s 22A of the Magistrates’ Court Act 1980.
M appealed against conviction for this offence on the ground that it was not ‘related to’ the racially
aggravated public order offence, so there had been no power to send it to the Crown Court under s
51(3)(b) of the 1998 Act. He appealed against sentence in respect of all four matters on the
indictment.
M also appealed against the activation of the suspended sentence. At the time of sentence, neither the
Recorder nor the advocates were aware that, after arraignment but before sentence in the Crown Court,
M had appeared before a magistrates’ court and pleaded guilty to a further offence of theft. The
magistrates had imposed a sentence of two weeks’ imprisonment and activated the suspended sentence
on that occasion.
The Journal of Criminal Law
2020, Vol. 84(1) 83–85
ªThe Author(s) 2020
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DOI: 10.1177/0022018320902545
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