“As deportation is not an option for a ABH charge the judge had no option to deport him.”
It is not the offence that determines deportation, Eddie, but the sentence. A sentence of 12 months or more should see deportation:
Under Section 32 of the UK Borders Act 2007, the Secretary of State must make a deportation order in respect of a non- British criminal where:
• the criminal was convicted in the UK and sentenced to a period of imprisonment, and the period of imprisonment is 12 months or more, and
• the sentence is a single sentence for a single conviction, it must not be an aggregate sentence or consecutive sentences, and
• the criminal was serving that sentence on or after 1 August 2008, and
• the criminal had not been served with a notice of decision to deport before 1 August 2008.
There are exceptions to this and one of them is where the person convicted has raised a claim for asylum. Mr Akram has an outstanding asylum claim lodged and this has been outstanding since before 2013.
The process is that following conviction the judge recommends (or otherwise) deportation to the Secretary of State. He then acts in accordance with the 2007 Act I explained above. In this case representations were made to the judge regarding Mr Akram’s asylum claim and the judge declined to recommend deportation.
There’s one other minor point of clarification:
“The only time a case can be 'referred up' for sentencing is if a magistrates court decides it's sentencing power (max 6 months in jail) is insufficient. The case would then be' referred up' to the High Court.
This case was already at the High court.”
Committals for sentencing when the Magistrates’ Court considers its powers insufficient are made to the Crown Court, never the High Court. Additionally, this matter was dealt with at the Crown Court. There is a considerable difference between the functions of the Crown Court and the High Court.