CPS Yorkshire and Humberside: Hate crime sentence uplift examples - Cases finalised November 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 November 2024 which resulted in a conviction and an uplifted sentence.

Racially aggravated cases

1. The defendant was arrested and taken to a hospital to be checked before being taken to custody. During this time, the defendant shouted a racial slur whilst a member of staff walked past his cubicle. The door of the cubicle was not completely shut, so this could be heard by other members of staff and patients in the ward. He pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to one charge of racially aggravated harassment by words. He would have received a conditional discharge, but he was sentenced to a £40 fine for racial aggravation. The sentence also included £85 in costs and £50 in victim surcharge.
2. The victim and the defendant were neighbours and had longstanding issues with one another, which have been reported to the police and council in the past. On this occasion, the victim had returned home with her daughter and the defendant went outside, where she began to verbally abuse the victim using racist remarks. The defendant pledged guilty to one charge of racially aggravated intentional distress by words. She was sentenced to a 12-month community order with two Rehabilitative Activity Requirement days, uplifted from a fine for hate crime element. The sentence also included £300 in costs and £114 in victim surcharge.
3. The victim arrived at the defendant’s home address in her taxi, after the defendant arranged a taxi via a pre booked appointment through a taxi service. The defendant made racist comments displeased with the victim’s parking, as she was physically disabled and used a wheelchair, believing she would be unable to get into the vehicle. The pair eventually departed the address, when the victim called the taxi service company to explain the abuse she had received. The service company worker overheard an argument between the pair when the defendant was verbally abusive. The defendant then threatened the victim and punched her on the left side of her face connecting near her eye. The defendant pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to one charge of racially aggravated harassment by words and one charge of assault by beating. She was sentenced to an 18-month conditional discharge, uplifted from 12 months due to racial aggravation. The sentence also included £26 in victim surcharge.
4. Whilst at a supermarket, the defendant pushed to the front of the queue at the checkout tills and began to shout and swear in the store. He was removed with force from the store by a security officer and his colleague. The defendant reacted by resisting and shouting racial abuse towards these members of staff. After managing to pull his right arm free from the group, he swung his closed fist and hit the security officer in the left cheek near his nose, knocking his glasses off and leaving a few marks. He pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to one charge of racially aggravated common assault. He was sentenced to a £150 fine, uplifted from conditional discharge due to the racially aggravated element. The sentence also included £150 in compensation, £85 in costs and £60 in victim surcharge.
5. The defendant was observed from a distance by the staff in a DIY store to conceal two cordless screwdrivers. When he walked through the store to the exit and past all points of payment, the victim detained him. He then became verbally aggressive and swung his arm out in a punching action towards the victim two to three times whilst shouting racist remarks. The defendant then became increasingly aggressive and fell to the floor, whilst the victim continued to detain him until police arrived. He pleaded guilty to one charge of racially aggravated common assault and one charge of failing to surrender to police. He was sentenced to 10-weeks’ imprisonment, uplifted from 8 weeks for racially aggravated assault. As he breached his suspended sentence, he was sentenced to an additional 8-weeks’ imprisonment. The sentence also included 2-week’s imprisonment concurrent for fail to surrender and £154 in surcharge.

Religiously aggravated cases

1. This was a long standing complex neighbour dispute over a parking space in the street, involving multiple family members from each side. On this occasion, one member of the victims’ family attended the address, so another family member moved the car that was parked in the parking space. Whilst the cars were moved, one of the defendants got in her car parked across the street and drove it between both other vehicles. This blocked the victims’ family from parking in that spot. From here, multiple people exited both addresses, shouted and swearing at each other. The comments that the two defendants made were towards the victims’ religion and race. One defendant pleaded guilty to one charge of religiously aggravated harassment by words and one charge of racially or religiously aggravated harassment by words. He was sentenced to a £150 fine, uplifted from £90 for racially aggravation. The sentence also included costs of £85 and victim surcharge of £60. The other defendant pleaded guilty to one charge of religiously aggravated harassment by words and one charge of racially or religiously aggravated by words. She was sentenced to a £390 fine, uplifted from £90 for racially aggravation. The sentence also included costs of £85 and victim surcharge of £156.

Homophobic hate crime cases

1. Whilst carrying a half-drunk big bottle of vodka, the defendant was denied entry to a bar. He then became very aggressive towards the bouncer, he threatened and shouted homophobic slurs around 50 to 100 times at him. A police officer was on duty near the location and arrested the defendant, a stop search was then conducted and Cannabis wrapped in tinfoil was found. He pledged guilty to one charge of possessing a controlled drug of Class B (Cannabis) and one charge of use threatening or abusive words likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress. He was sentenced to a £120 fine, uplifted from Band B to Band C fine for the hate crime element. The sentence also included £48 in victim surcharge, £85 in costs. There was no separate penalty for possession of cannabis, apart from a Forfeiture & Destruction order.