The Sentencing Advisory Panel has today published a proposal that the Court of Appeal should frame a sentencing guideline on the offence of handling stolen goods.

Handlers of stolen goods vary from the otherwise honest individual who makes a one-off purchase of, say, a stolen video or mobile phone for personal use, to the professional who holds himself out as a regular receiver, often under cover of a legitimate business. The majority of offences are at the lower end of the range, and for these the Panel believes the appropriate response is a fine or a community sentence. Sentences approaching the maximum (14 years in custody) should be reserved for the most serious and unusual cases where the handler had previous knowledge of a very serious offence such as an armed robbery.

The Panel's aim is to encourage consistency in sentencing. Guidelines from the Court of Appeal help sentencers to adopt a common approach, and to attach the appropriate weight to the various factors that may aggravate or mitigate an individual offence. In this proposal, the Panel therefore seeks to:

• identify a range of factors which make one offence more or less serious than another, including the nature, provenance and value of the stolen property,
• point out some of the specific hallmarks of a professional handler, and
• identify the circumstances in which the sentencer should consider imposing a custodial or community sentence.

Notes for editors

1. The Sentencing Advisory Panel is an independent advisory and consultative body constituted under sections 80 and 81 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. It started work on 1 July 1999. Its function is to provide fully researched, objective advice to the Court of Appeal to assist the Court when it frames or revises sentencing guidelines.

2. The Court of Appeal issues sentencing guidelines for the criminal courts. The Crime and Disorder Act placed a new duty on the Court to consider framing or revising guidelines whenever it is considering an appeal against sentence.

3. Handling stolen goods is an offence which may be tried either summarily in a magistrates' court or on indictment at the Crown Court. The maximum penalty is 6 months' imprisonment when the offence is tried summarily, and 14 years' imprisonment on indictment. There are at present no sentencing guidelines from the Court of Appeal for this offence.

4. The Panel has previously published proposals that the Court of Appeal should frame sentencing guidelines on:

• Environmental offences
• Possession of offensive weapons
• Importation and possession of opium (adopted by the Court of Appeal in R v Mashaollahi (25 July 2000)
• Racially aggravated offences

5. The Panel published its first annual report to the Home Secretary and the Lord Chancellor on 28 June 2000.