The Sentencing Council issued six draft guidelines this week, including four aggravated vehicle taking offences, which are covered by the Theft Act 1968, covering situations in which offenders driving a stolen vehicle or a vehicle taken without permission go on to drive dangerously or cause death, injury or damage to property.
The proposed draft would set a guideline for the first time for sentencing the offence in the Crown Court and replace the current magistrates’ court guidelines, which apply a maximum of two years’ custody for dangerous driving or 14 years if death results. The Crown Court heard the majority (76%) of around 250 adult offenders sentenced in 2022 for aggravated vehicle taking involving dangerous driving.
The draft guideline sets out harm, culpability and aggravating factors—such as vehicle taken as part of a burglary, damage done to an emergency vehicle, failure to stop, or having a child present in the car—as well as sentence levels. It proposes up to two years in prison, with a starting point of one year six months for offences causing the most serious harm, and low-level community orders for the least serious.
Where less than £5,000 damage is caused, the offence will be summary-only with a maximum penalty of six months in prison.
Where the offence causes death, the proposed minimum penalty is 12 months and maximum 14 years’ custody. In this situation, however, the suspected offender is usually charged with causing death by dangerous driving.
Sentencing Council member Judge Simon Drew KC said: ‘Drivers who commit motoring offences that result in death, injury or damage to property in vehicles they do not have permission to drive, can cause anguish and inconvenience both to the vehicle owner and to victims affected by their driving.’
The Council issued a further two draft guidelines this week, on vehicle registration fraud such as forging, altering or fraudulently using number plates, and an overarching guideline for driver disqualification, including principles to follow when imposing a disqualification.
Respond to the consultation by 22 May.
