Carlos Tevez Gets Community Service Order

[Gromit]

Driving while disqualified and no insurance.

250 hours Community Service (probably teaching kids how to kick a ball).

Is that usual?

[factor-fiction]

I suppose the usual £150 fine would have been meaningless in this case. He is lucky though- a jail sentence was presumably a possibility

[sir.prize]

After being banned from driving for six months in January, he was lucky to escape prison this time.

He received 250 hours community service, banned for six months AGAIN and fined £60 for driving while disqualified.

For goodness sake, the guy earns well over £100,000 a week!

[youngmafbog]

Should have been jail

Teach him a lesson (ie you cant do what you like because you are a thick footballer) and set an example.

but then, I guess the liberals would object and it would infringe his human rights.

[sir.prize]

Allegedly Tevez was earning £286,000 a week AFTER TAX two years ago.

Source: http://www.discogs.com/groups/topic/223017

And he gets fined £60 for driving while disqualified.

So that's what Merlin the Magician solicitor Gwyn Lewis has managed for him.

It should have been a custodial sentence.

Amazing isn't it?

[New Judge]

No it is not at all amazing, sir.prize.

Taking the emotion out of this and looking at the Magistrates’ sentencing guidelines (under which Tevez was sentenced) you will find that the usual “Starting Point” for the offence is a high level community order. Only if the offence takes place within a short time of the imposition of the ban (or if there are any other aggravating features) should custody be considered. Being a highly paid footballer does not count as an aggravating feature and there seems little in the few details of the offence which have been provided to either aggravate or mitigate the offence.

Tevez was indeed sentenced to a high level community order (300 hours is the maximum that Magistrates can impose and he had to be given credit for his guilty plea).The £1,000 fine was probably for the offence of driving without insurance (which nearly always accompanies driving whilst disqualified).

Mr Tevez’s sentence seems entirely in line with sentencing guidelines. The blame for his apparent lenient sentence should be placed at the door of the Sentencing Council rather than the Magistrates. Less than five years ago the “starting Point” for the offence was immediate custody but, along with many other offences, the guidelines have seen a gradual but deliberate suppression of penalties.

[sir.prize]

Thanks for that, Judge.

So because he had served most of his earlier ban, it warranted leniency? OK, then why would Tevez pay a 'small fortune' in fees to Merlin the Magician. He obviously feared the worst.

[New Judge]

Probably for the same reason that he spends money on expensive cars and big houses - because he can.

Just a bit of additional information. Very few people receive custodial sentences for a first offence of driving whilst disqualified. There has to be considerable aggravation (such as, for example, being caught driving away from court following the disqualification, or stealing a vehicle, being involved in a police chase, causing a bad accident, repeatedly offending, that sort of thing) before custody is considered.

It is completely wrong in my view. Driving whilst disqualified is a deliberate act which the driver has chosen to undertake contrary to a court order. It is not something you can do "recklessly" or by accident. But as I said earlier sentencing guidelines have gradually suppressed sentences available to courts for many offences in recent years.

[Orderlimit]

"But as I said earlier sentencing guidelines have gradually suppressed sentences available to courts for many offences in recent years".

Except hate / speech crime NJ.

[New Judge]

Yes quite right, ol.

It seems the worst crime in the UK now is to offend somebody. It doesn't matter too much if you rob them, or run them down in the street whilst banned or uninsured. Just don't call them names or you'll really be for it !!

[DaisyNonna]

What a role model for young football fans!
Should have guessed he would get off with a ridiculous fine. Hope his community service is real service, not football or with youngsters.

[zebo]

Where was the Manchester get-off-with-it lawyer this time? Or is it only MU players who benefit from his services?

[grumpy01]

Perhaps he'll cut Neil Warnock's Lawn.

[emeritus]

The Sun Headline today

Dont Cry for me Argie Cleaner

[aelmpvw]

I didn't know there weren't any taxi companies in Manchester

[ummmm]

Why should he be treated any different to someone on the average wage?

I know someone who has been done for drink driving 3 times and he didn't go to prison.

[Tizzi24]

Justice in the UK is ridiculous.