Suspected drink driver handed higher sentence for hate crime

A suspected drink driver caught in Leicester in possession of cannabis has been handed an uplifted sentence for homophobic behaviour while in police custody.

Ngqabutho Ntungakwa (28) from Leicester was arrested after being seen carrying out an unsafe manoeuvre in his car in the centre of Leicester. On his arrest a quantity of cannabis and cash were found in his possession. He failed to give full readings at the scene so was taken to the nearest police station to provide a sample. During the test, he failed to engage with the process, making homophobic comments about the procedure and claiming he would not co-operate because he was ‘anti-LGBTQ’. When challenged he repeated the remark.

He was charged with failing to provide a specimen for analysis and possession of class B controlled substances and given a 12-month community order including unpaid work. At a hearing at Leicester Magistrates Court, the CPS prosecutor relayed his homophobic comments to the court because it showed he had committed the offence of failing to provide a specimen at least in part due to hostility towards the LGBTQi community and the offence was therefore a hate crime. The court agreed and Ntungakwa was given an additional 30 hours of unpaid work on his sentence.

Tom Oates from the CPS said: “Hate crimes are some of the most corrosive offences we see. When hostility to people’s characteristics influences criminal behaviour, we will not hesitate to prosecute offences as hate crimes. This is a highly unusual set of circumstances for an offence to be committed due to such hostility, but the behaviour was demonstrated in the evidence before the court and this defendant’s hostility has been called out and dealt with and a suitable uplift applied to his sentence.”

Ngqabutho Ntungakwa was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work, disqualified from driving for 20 months and ordered to pay court costs totalling £199.