Magistrates and judges are restricted in sentencing because of a principle which is a rather peculiar one - and one not known about by most of the general public.Let us say that somebody has been convicted of: a motoring insurance offence, an MOT offence, licence offences, having a car in an unroadworthy condition and, for the sake of argument, a further half a dozen offences to cap it all off.
Phew. That little lot should tot up to quite a sentence, wouldn't you say?
Well, it doesn't! It cannot because of 'totality' which means that an overview must be taken and in effect, the only offence punished will be the most serious one and all others will receive an NSP - No Separate Penalty. So in this case, only the insurance matter will be punished and all the others will be ignored.
When I was on the Bench, I always tried to insist that the insurance offence would be punished at the higher end of the scale under such circumstances - but there were restrictions on that too!
If the offender is on a relatively low income, they would get points on the licence and a pretty small fine.
It also means of course, that somebody with a single insurance offence and no others will be sentenced identically to a thorough rogue - and that ain't justice!
Do not blame magistrates for appalling sentencing practices - quite often, indeed most of the time, their hands are tied.
