Perverting the course of justice is a crime.
The sentencing guidelines are here.
Pleading guilty will reduce the sentence. Having stoutly insisted upon innocence before that will increase it. Note that sentences are expected to be consecutive, not concurrent, and there should be two, one for the offence and one for the perversion.
Sentences are reduced/increased given the seriousness of the underlying crime.
The current betting from those who know more about this than I do is over a year of jail time (no, whatever it is will not be suspended) and thus a by-election.
Anyone want to lay claim to a different number?
37 responses so far ↓
1 john b // Feb 4, 2013 at 12:34 pm
The point about sentencing for the perversion and the original offence is irrelevant – you don’t go to jail for a 3-point speeding offence.
R v Francis-McGann (3 months) and R v Snow (9 months) are closest, which suggest together that over a year of jail time is unlikely.
Disappointingly, he’s already announced that he’ll resign anyway.
2 BarryS // Feb 4, 2013 at 12:37 pm
Is not long enough a number?
3 KJ // Feb 4, 2013 at 12:43 pm
R v Snow much closer of the two.. so 9 months seems a reasonable enough guess…
4 Matthew L // Feb 4, 2013 at 12:44 pm
There’ll be a by-election regardless, he’s already said he’s resigning his seat.
5 alastair harris // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:06 pm
As an MP and former cabinet minister he should be hung out to dry – how long has he been protesting his innocence?
6 Edward. // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:36 pm
It was the constant refrain and of claiming his total innocence that really grated.
Whatever Huhne’s sentence is, it will not be long enough for the ruin he’s caused this nation but he is not the most vile politician in recent decades – Blair could lay more claim to that.
It’s just that, Huhne is probably the most stupid in a chorus line at Westminster as long as a New York boulevard.
7 KJ // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Seat will probably turn from yellow tory to blue tory.. leaving the coalition majority unchanged.. nothing to see here, move along…..
8 Hector Pascal // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:41 pm
My guess is an interview (with tea and biscuits) with Clegg, a seat in the Lords and a sinecure in Brussels. For services to the environment, naturally.
9 Ljh // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:46 pm
Oh how I wish he could be tied to one of his ecofixes and stay there until said windmill had generated as much energy as he has wasted…(at the beginning of a long cold still spell)
10 Interested // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:48 pm
The conspiracy, the (presumed) duress he placed on bhis ex wife, his former position as a law maker and his consistent, flagrant and public denials (coupled with his failure to plead at the earliest opportunity) will all be aggravating factors.
I predict 15 months.
11 John Price // Feb 4, 2013 at 1:55 pm
@ Interested. That seems about on the money to me, and for those reasons. There’s more to tell on this story yet, though.
12 john b // Feb 4, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Nick Freeman (Mr Loophole, so pretty hot on dodgy motoring cases) is predicting 3-6 months.
13 john b // Feb 4, 2013 at 2:10 pm
Sentence will be adjourned until the ex’s case is tried, for obvious reasons. If she gets off on a coercion defence (*cough*bollocks*cough), then that might raise things into the levels that Interested and JP are suggesting.
14 John Price // Feb 4, 2013 at 2:59 pm
@ john b. Equally, I plead guilty of wishful thinking, for which the sentence is to be made to look slightly foolish. Hey ho.
15 sam // Feb 4, 2013 at 3:00 pm
a seat in the Lords and a sinecure in Brussels
nah, even the lib dems can’t pull that off. It would take Archer levels of chutzpah to come back from this, and Huhne hasn’t got it in him.
16 Sandman // Feb 4, 2013 at 3:08 pm
Public figures can expect to get stiffer sentences than normal members of the public for these types of offences, as they benefit from being typified as “honourable”. Archer got 2 years for procuring a false alibi, but it was more serious circumstances than a speeding violation.
He’ll get a discount of 10% for a late guilty plea. He’ll be looking at around a year’s sentence in an open prison, and will of course be let out after half to two thirds of the sentence.
17 Mr Ecks // Feb 4, 2013 at 3:53 pm
My feeling is that he won’t get jail time. He should as above but the months this case has taken to reach court suggests they have been cudgelling their so-called brains forA a- a formula to avoid trial=fail andB- a way to seem to punish but keep another member of the ruling class out of jail.
We shall see.
18 john miller // Feb 4, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Jail?
Really?
I don’t think most people understand how this country works…
19 PaulB // Feb 4, 2013 at 5:20 pm
“you should have no illusions whatsoever as to the sort of sentence that you are likely to receive” – he’s going down. The way this country works is that the great and the good can get away with almost anything except messing with the courts. Ask Archer or Aitken.
20 Interested // Feb 4, 2013 at 6:02 pm
@JohnB ‘ If she gets off on a coercion defence (*cough*bollocks*cough), then that might raise things into the levels that Interested and JP are suggesting.’
Yes – as I said ‘the (presumed) duress’.
Sentencing is all about mitigation and the facts of the case (obviously), none of which we really know.
If he does get 15 mths, by the way, a large part of that will be served on a tag.
21 Edward Lud // Feb 4, 2013 at 6:27 pm
Yup, gaol time. My money is on 12-15 months. Good-oh!
22 bloke in spain // Feb 4, 2013 at 6:28 pm
“Ask Archer or Aitken.”
Or Margaret Moran?
23 bloke in france // Feb 4, 2013 at 6:36 pm
Does Lord Stanley’s dictum apply?
“We do not hang men for stealing horses. We hang them so that horses are not stolen.”
In which case an exemplary sentence would have the paradoxical effect of freeing up some jail space and speeding up justice.
24 Diogenes // Feb 4, 2013 at 7:34 pm
ok – the offence happened in 2003!
How much has this trivial affair cost in terms of court-time, lawyers’ fees etc? This is a traffic incident!
It must be clocking up over £1m by now.
Huhne should serve time simply to serve as an example to other unprincipled, wealthy people who want to take the piss out of the justice system.
If you are innocent, then fair enough to fight the charge. If you are guilty and waste 10 years’of everyone else’s time, then be prepared never to pick up the soap.
25 KJ // Feb 4, 2013 at 7:42 pm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/04/messages-toll-chris-huhne-relationship-son
This brought a lump to my throat.. and cards on the table here, I do have some sympathy for Huhne (probably in a minority of one here.. but I always think there but for the grace of God and all that) though obviously more sympathy for his son.. I’ve always felt Huhne was one of the more decent Libdemmers…
I think I’m gonna get myself ripped a new arsehole now aren’t I?!….
26 Interested // Feb 4, 2013 at 7:46 pm
@KJ I found those texts quite upsetting too. He may be a thoroughly unpleasaant man, but it’s still a shame.
27 Diogenes // Feb 4, 2013 at 8:16 pm
it all depends on how far you want to go to contest a very trivial speeding offense. If a politician has so little sense of proportion, should he be trusted to run a department of state? This was a minor traffic offence. It was not even a murder. It was not even about fraudulent expense claims!
28 Judge Jeffries // Feb 4, 2013 at 8:17 pm
6 feet
were he in China then it’d be 9mm
29 John Galt // Feb 4, 2013 at 8:20 pm
@KJ:
Many thanks for the link to the Chris Huhne / Peter Huhne texts. It was that last one that got me, from Peter to his father.
PH: “Don’t text me you fat piece of shit.”
His judgement cometh…and that right soon.
30 Ross // Feb 4, 2013 at 8:30 pm
I can’t stand Chris Huhne but his wife is clearly a piece of work, and if we jail everyone who gets a spouse to take points for them the prisons would be overflowing.
He has been treated very harshly.
31 Runcie Balspune // Feb 4, 2013 at 9:16 pm
Come on, he’s a politician, you have to kill someone to do jail time nowadays.
Or, perhaps not even that.
32 theProle // Feb 4, 2013 at 10:20 pm
To a degree, this news has made my day.
Nothing can be more pleasing than this particularly odious, greedy, untruthful and selfish man getting at least a hint of come-upance.
That said, to be offset against this, one must consider that of all his crimes, palming off a speeding ticket onto his missis must be a fairly minor one (although quite how one clocks up that many points does rather bemuse me – I drive about double the average annual mileage, and without a huge regard to the limit, and have done so for some years, and have so far been booked precisely zero times for speeding – maybe I’m just more observant of yellow boxes than he is).
I’m not sure why people are suggesting Vicky Price is such a nasty bit of work – IMHO he very much did the dirty on her, and should hardly be surprised that she chose to hint there were skeletons in his closet – I don’t think she anticipated it ever going this far (after all, she still potentially faces significant time in the clink).
My only disappointment is he seems (by delaying the change of plea), to have manged to trowser another year worth of our hard earned cash to add to his millions…
33 Sam // Feb 4, 2013 at 10:21 pm
@KJ: Given the text messages, his son comes over as a thoroughly unpleasant little shit. As for Chris Huhne himself, I am wondering whether there is a procedure to require forfeiture of a MP’s pension, rather like a police officer guilty of serious misconduct can have his pension reduced. There is almost no upper limit for the appropriate punishment for a disgusting little venal toad like Huhne.
34 Tim Newman // Feb 5, 2013 at 6:34 am
That said, to be offset against this, one must consider that of all his crimes, palming off a speeding ticket onto his missis must be a fairly minor one…
It’s not the crime that gets you, it’s the coverup. Or something like that.
35 Interested // Feb 5, 2013 at 8:50 am
Wholly off topic but amusing. As someone says in the comments, you’d think Yglesias might have a clue re this give that he’s a business correspondent.
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/small_business/2013/02/starting_my_small_business_cities_make_it_incredibly_hard_to_get_a_business.single.html
36 sam // Feb 5, 2013 at 10:47 am
@KJ
The texts made me feel quite sorry for Huhne. Which was a shame, because until that point I’d found the whole thing hilarious.
Not sure what I think of his son, I’m afraid. All very easy to be full of righteous ire at that age…
37 MellorSJ // Feb 6, 2013 at 3:45 am
That’s for that, Interested (#35). I need a belly laugh.
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