Our client had been charged with offences of fraud by abuse of position and theft totalling almost £50,000. He pleaded guilty to both offences at the earliest opportunity and was committed to the Crown Court for sentence. The sentencing guidelines for the offence of fraud by abuse of position alone indicated a starting point of three years immediate imprisonment.

We instructed Dr Forrester, a psychiatrist, to assess our client and prepare a report focusing on gambling addictions and the impact that it can have. We worked with our client in order to gather character references and other mitigating evidence to use at the sentencing hearing.

At our client’s sentencing hearing, the Judge was persuaded to defer sentence for 6 months. The Judge imposed a number of conditions indicating that if those conditions were complied with, a non immediate custodial sentence would be imposed.

Our client complied fully with the conditions imposed by the Judge and, as previously indicated, a suspended sentence of 18 months was imposed.

Our client was represented by Sabrina Neves of our East Dulwich Team and Higher Court Advocate, Elena Papamichael.