Football Fan Banned & Fined For Assaulting Female BTP Officer.

[Ianigsy]

The sentence strikes me as quite shrewd in some ways- I doubt the fine will worry him if he's just been saved the trouble of renewing a Manchester City season ticket for three years, though! A four month curfew may be more effective than chucking him in prison for six-months-but-really-three-or-four, particularly if he's the breadwinner for a family who depend on his income to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. He'll also face a considerable amount of inconvenience over the next three years- the Premier League play 19 home league games a season, so that's probably 15 weekends a year plus cup games when he can't go into Manchester, 8 or 9 when he can't go to London and it also makes it difficult for him to book a trip to, say, Paris or Amsterdam or Barcelona during the cup season in case City are drawn away to the local opposition.

He did also admit the charges, so I suspect he found a sensible lawyer who advised him to accept the long-term inconvenience to avoid prison.

 

[Antman]

People here are forever highlighting railway-based inaccuracies in news items. Why would you expect 100% accuracy in any other field?

So do you know it's inaccurate or are you just guessing?

 

[Jamesb1974]

Deleted

 

[azz7008]

I wonder how much aggro there was from Cornwall rugby fans returning from Twickers.

... Which has absolutely nothing to do with this thread. All sports have their share of stupid fans and grounds in the present day are a much safer place.

 

[Antman]

Men who hit women are cowards. Men who hit women aren't man enough to hit another man in a square fight. End of story.

Rather stating the obvious. End of story.

 

[miami]

Men who hit women are cowards. Men who hit women aren't man enough to hit another man in a square fight. End of story.

What a sexist statement

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Men who hit people are a$$holes. End of story.

Fixed that for you. Though I generally agree with your sentiment.

 

[cuccir]

The sentence strikes me as quite shrewd in some ways... a sensible lawyer who advised him to accept the long-term inconvenience to avoid prison.

I think you're right to point out that without access to the details, we can't know the basis on which sentencing was made. My understanding is that a low fine may be given if some other punishment is known to the court, for example, if the court knows that someone will lose or has lost their job. Indeed a low fine might be explained if the criminal's lawyer was able to show that the tag/curfew would effect earnings. Frankly, a 4 month curfew is much cheaper to the state than a 1 year prison sentence and I don't think we should consider that as necessarily a 'light' punishment.

In other words, it does seem superficially a little light but we can't really comment without the full information and there are multiple plausible scenarios for giving a different punishment.

 

[Antman]

I think you're right to point out that without access to the details, we can't know the basis on which sentencing was made. My understanding is that a low fine may be given if some other punishment is known to the court, for example, if the court knows that someone will lose or has lost their job. Indeed a low fine might be explained if the criminal's lawyer was able to show that the tag/curfew would effect earnings. Frankly, a 4 month curfew is much cheaper to the state than a 1 year prison sentence and I don't think we should consider that as necessarily a 'light' punishment.

In other words, it does seem superficially a little light but we can't really comment without the full information and there are multiple plausible scenarios for giving a different punishment.

Exactly, a court will know everything there is to know about the incident and the offender.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Couple of points:

The Sentencing Council set the guidelines that are used by Magistrates and Judges when setting sentences. It looks to me as though this case has been sentenced according to the guidelines. IIRC the sentencing bands for Assualt PC were lowered some time ago.

Second, a football banning order is quite a thing. Badly reported in the paper: you're are banned from any FA game down to Conference Level. Also you have to surrender your passport whenever England play away. That can cause havoc with holiday plans. Finally, additional exclusion areas may be added on match days for individuals.

 

[DarloRich]

Couple of points:

The Sentencing Council set the guidelines that are used by Magistrates and Judges when setting sentences. It looks to me as though this case has been sentenced according to the guidelines. IIRC the sentencing bands for Assualt PC were lowered some time ago.

Second, a football banning order is quite a thing. Badly reported in the paper: your are banned from any FA game, so that includes kids football and Sunday league. Also you have to surrender your passport whenever England play away. That can cause havoc with holiday plans. Finally, additional exclusion areas may be added on match days for individuals.

Point of order: A football banning order has no force below conference north level.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Point of order: A football banning order has no force below conference north level.

Does that mean Conference South is excluded

You're quite right, my recall was at fault - the ban only extends to Conference teams. It's been a couple of years since I dealt with one and my memory must be failing me.

 

[Wolfie]

Men who hit women are cowards. Men who hit women aren't man enough to hit another man in a square fight. End of story.

While I agree in general with what I suspect that you are trying to say, I still must say really? Regardless of circumstances? So if a woman assaults me I can never defend myself?

 

[DarloRich]

Does that mean Conference South is excluded

You're quite right, my recall was at fault - the ban only extends to Conference teams. It's been a couple of years since I dealt with one and my memory must be failing me.

No worries and likewise. It came as a shock to me that they did not reach below conference level as i had assumed they banned you from all organised football.

 

[jayah]

Disappointed that the courts won't send you to jail for punching a Bobby. Very surprised at that, although one assumes he got a night in the cells following the arrest.

I'm just wondering if the guy actually had a ticket all along?

If they had pursued him for not having a £3.20 ticket, the fine at Magistrates would probably have been higher than for the assault.

 

[GarethJohn]

No worries and likewise. It came as a shock to me that they did not reach below conference level as i had assumed they banned you from all organised football.

Even league matches frequently don't have Police in attendance anymore yet they do have CCTV & Hired Bouncers. For LL It's unenforceable how can you police every match in the country in anticipation that one might attend a game? And how could you ban someone from walking through a park in every town in the land?(In certain cases this can be done too Sex offenders etc).

 

[Flamingo]

Simple answer is you can't - but random checks and heavy penalties for breaching the order have a deterrent effect (kind of like revenue enforcement on the railway!).