Regina v. Dosanjh (Court of Appeal, 2014)

United Kingdom

Jurisdiction: United Kingdom

Principle law(s): EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) (Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC)

Side A: Regina (Individual)

Side B: Dosanjh (Individual)

Core objectives: Challenging criminal sentence for cheating the EU ETS

Summary

The defendants were involved in manipulation of the EU Emissions Trade Scheme, running companies that formed two artificial ‘trading chains' through which the fraud was operated. They were convicted of the common law offense of conspiring to cheat the public revenue and sentenced to terms of imprisonment of 15 years, 11 years and 9 years, respectively. The defendants appealed the sentences, arguing that (1) it was wrong in principle to pass a sentence which was longer than the maximum penalty available for the equivalent statutory offences or for the cognate common law offence of conspiracy to defraud; and (2) the sentence of 15 years was, on the facts of the case, manifestly excessive.

The court stated that Parliament had deliberately not decided the offense of cheating the revenue. Parliament had left the offense of conspiracy to cheat the public revenue from statutory charge, both in existence and the penalty at large, because it is of particular seriousness. In assessing whether or not the sentences were manifestly excessive, the court looked at previous decisions of the court and the draft guideline from the Sentencing Council, and noted that: cheating the revenue is a major drain on the public purse, and the defendants' actions were a serious level of offending, with an enormous amount of planning. However, the court determined that those sentences were too high and reduced the sentences to 13 years, 10 years and 8 years.

Related laws and policies

This law implements European Union legislation

EU Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS) (Directive 2003/87/EC establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community and amending Council Directive 96/61/EC)

Passed in 2003 Legislative

This Directive establishes a Community GHG emissions trading scheme from 2005, to enable the Community and the Member States to meet their Kyoto Protocol commitments. Directive 2004/101/EC reinforces the link between the EU's emission allowance trading scheme and the Kyoto Protocol by making the ...