Bribery clerk's sentence reduced
A court clerk who made legal history when he became the first person to be jailed under new bribery legislation has won a two-year reduction in his sentence.
Munir Patel, 22, of Green Lane, Dagenham, east London, was originally handed a three-year prison term for bribery and ordered to serve six years concurrently for misconduct in a public office - making an overall sentence of six years.
At the Court of Appeal in London, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge, sitting with two other judges, ruled that the total of six years, imposed in November on a young man of previous good character who pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity, was "excessive".
Lord Judge announced: "In our judgment the appropriate sentence for this criminal activity remains a substantial sentence, but the sentence should be reduced from six to four years."
London's Southwark Crown Court heard last year that Patel, who worked at Redbridge Magistrates' Court in east London, used his privileged access to the court system to help more than 50 offenders avoid prosecution relating to driving offences in exchange for sums of up to £500.
He became the first person to be prosecuted and convicted under the Bribery Act 2010.
The reduction in sentence was achieved by cutting Patel's original six-year term for misconduct in a public office to four years.
Lord Judge said: "The appellant abused his position as a court clerk to pervert the course of justice by taking bribes from those who had committed motoring offences and enabled them to escape the proper consequences for what they had done."
He added: "A very substantial sentence was an appropriate sentence to be imposed on the appellant. That said, we have come to the conclusion that the sentence which was actually imposed ... was an excessive sentence.
"The question for us is whether a six-year total sentence on a young man of good character who pleaded guilty at the first available opportunity was excessive. We have come to the conclusion that it was."
