Jersey Unreported Judgments

[2009]JRC001

ROYAL COURT

(Samedi Division)

2^nd January 2009

The Attorney General

-v-

Lee Albert De Mouilpied

Review of Community Service Order imposed on 10^th September, 2006, following guilty pleas on:

J. C. Gollop, Esq., Crown Advocate.

The Defendant was not represented.

JUDGMENT

THE DEPUTY BAILIFF:

1.        On the 10^th November, 2006, Mr De Mouilpied was placed on Probation for 2 years with a Community Service Order of 180 hours, for various offences.  On the 18^th April, 2008, the Court extended the period for Community Service to 9^th November, 2008, because the defendant had been unable to complete the 180 hours by then because of certain medical difficulties to which we will refer in a moment.  He has carried out a total of 107 hours and that leaves 73 still uncompleted.  The Community Service team has made enormous efforts to try and accommodate him and we express our gratitude to them for their efforts in that regard.

2.        We are satisfied that the reasons why the defendant has not carried out the Community Service are outside his control and based on his medical condition.  Not only do we have medical reports from Dr Cook and from Dr Harrison, but we have also had the opportunity of hearing from Dr Cook in person.  We have also seen and heard from the defendant and we are quite satisfied that this is not a case of wilful disobedience of the Court's order or a lack of application in trying to carry it out.  The defendant has a medical condition which has made it impossible for him to carry out all the hours by the time required.

3.        In the circumstances we do regard this as an exceptional case.  First of all, as we say, the reasons for the defendant not complying with the order are medical.  Secondly he has committed no further offences since his conviction.  Thirdly the sentence was imposed as long ago as November 2006; it has therefore been going on now for over 2 years and as he put it to us today, the continued hanging over him would exacerbate his medical condition.  And fourthly, for him we think that 107 hours is probably the equivalent to many more hours for another person in terms of punishment because of the existence of his medical condition. 

4.        After careful consideration we have decided that we do not think it would be right to send him to prison; we do not think the public interest requires that in the light of the factors which we have described, bearing in mind, also, that he did serve some 6 weeks on remand in prison back in 2006.  We have considered whether a modest extension of the hours which he must carry out, coupled with a further 6 months in which to complete them would be appropriate, in other words to vary the order by reducing it from 180 to, say, 130 hours so that he only had to carry out a further 20-25 hours.  But we are satisfied that that would not be in the public interest either and we think there is a real risk he would be unable to do that and we would then, in 6 months time, be back in the same situation.  Ultimately, although it is exceptional to allow a person not to complete all the Community Service without being punished in an alternative way, we think that in this particular case he has been punished enough and that it is best to bring this matter to a close.

5.        We are therefore going to revoke the existing order and substitute a Community Service Order of 107 hours which is what he has carried out.

No Authorities