CPS Yorkshire and Humberside: Hate crime sentence uplift examples, cases finalised March 2024

Under the hate crime legislation, courts must treat offences more seriously where there is evidence that the offender demonstrated hostility on the basis of the victim’s actual or presumed race, religion, disability, transgender identity or sexual orientation, or the offence was motivated on the basis of hostility towards one of these characteristics. Below are some examples of hate crime cases prosecuted by CPS Yorkshire and Humberside in March 2024 which resulted in a conviction and an uplifted sentence.

Racially aggravated cases

1.    The defendant made a call to police asking for an update. Dismayed by the information given to him, he then made multiple threats and made racially abusive comments to the call handler. On a separate occasion, the defendant caused a confrontation with the victim regarding where he had parked his car. The car was not parked illegally but the defendant made multiple threats and made racist comments when complaining about it. He pleaded guilty to sending a communication of a sensitive nature and was found guilty at trial in the magistrates’ court to racially aggravated intentional harassment. He was sentenced to 250 hours unpaid work, uplifted from 150 hours. Additionally, he was given a 12-month community order and was ordered to pay £150 compensation (Humberside Case).  

2.    A security guard asked the defendant to move off the premises, the defendant was reluctant to do this and became increasingly aggravated by the situation and then made multiple racist remarks to the security guard. Upon being transported to the police station, he also urinated in the police van. The defendant pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to racially aggravated intentional harassment and criminal damage. He was sentenced to 12 weeks imprisonment, uplifted from 6 weeks, suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay compensation £75 to the victim and £30 for criminal damage (South Yorkshire Case).

3.    The defendant approached his neighbours house and spat on the victim’s door while shouting racist abuse. Upon arrest, he was also found in possession of cannabis. He pleaded guilty at trial in the magistrates’ court to racially aggravated harassment and possession of a Class B drug. He was sentenced to 150 hours unpaid work, uplifted from 120 hours. Additionally, he was given a 12 month community order, 20 rehabilitative activity requirement days and ordered to pay £100 compensation (West Yorkshire Case).

4.    The defendant was walking through an interchange assisting his heavily intoxicated friend walk as she was unable to walk unaided. He asked two security staff members for help but became aggravated when he deemed the help they were providing to be insufficient. He then became verbally aggressive and made numerous racial remarks to both. He pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to two charges of racially aggravated intentional harassment. He was sentenced to 10 rehabilitative activity requirement days, uplifted from six days and also included a 9-month community order (West Yorkshire Case).

5.    The defendant was in a communal area of his residency when a member of staff requested him to put a muzzle on his dog. Irritated by this request, he made a racist comment towards the staff member and kicked a door several times. He appeared on warrant at the magistrates’ court where he pleaded guilty to racially aggravated intentional harassment, using threatening and abusive language, failure to surrender to police and failure to answer court. He was sentenced to an 18-month community order, uplifted from what would have been a fine. Additionally, the sentence included 200 hours of unpaid work, 30 rehabilitative activity requirement days and £100 compensation to be paid (West Yorkshire Case).

6.    The defendant was at a football match and became increasingly frustrated with the opposition’s player, this escalated to him gesturing towards the player and making multiple racist comments. The defendant pleaded guilty in the magistrates’ court to racially aggravated harassment. He was sentenced to a £800 fine, uplifted from £400 and additionally ordered to pay £405 in costs (West Yorkshire Case).

Homophobic hate crime cases:

1.    The victim was in his workshop at his property when he heard his neighbour approach on motorbike. The neighbour gestured and made a homophobic insult to the victim while loitering around the victim’s property. The defendant pleaded guilty in the magistrates’ court to using homophobic abusive language to cause harassment. He was sentenced to a £750 fine, uplifted from £560 and ordered to pay an additional £450 in costs (Humberside Case).

Disability hate crime cases:

1.    The defendant took issue with a family that was walking by his house, he made offence remarks to one of the family members about their disability. He then smacked the phone out of another family members hand when they were trying to contact the police. The defendant was found guilty after trial in the magistrates’ court to assault by beating. He was sentenced to 100 hours unpaid work, uplifted from 50 hours due to the disability hate crime element. Additionally, he was given a 12-month community order and a 5 year restraining order from the victim (West Yorkshire Case).