Sentencing News

Back in August of 2025 plain clothes officers from Vincent Square and Pimlico North arrested a male on Vauxhall Bridge Road for Possession with Intent to Supply. He was found with 46 wraps of cocaine and 76 of heroine. In November the offender, Patrick Santos, was sentenced to three years and nine months, a result which we communicated via Met Engage.

On Friday at The Court of Appeal before a panel of three judges it was submitted on behalf of the Solicitor General, that the sentencing was too lenient and that the judge in the original case had ‘fallen into error’ in identifying exceptional circumstances which persuaded him to reduce the sentence. These included the span of time since the last  ‘relevant offence’ and the fact that earlier ones had been committed when Mr Santos was a minor.

At Friday’s hearing the three judges agreed that the original sentence was too lenient and that the mitigating factors identified by the original judge could not be considered exceptional. Since the last ‘relevant offence’ of drug dealing in 2020 Mr Santos had been  convicted of a firearms and ammunition offence and Possession of Class A drugs. This helped persuade the judges to quash the original sentence and impose a new one of five years and seven months.

The ward team welcomes this judgement in the hope the longer sentence will send a strong message of deterrence and keep a committed drug dealer off our streets for an appropriate length of time.