SENTENCING STATEMENTS
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HMA v Jarron Rutherford and Kevin Gerrard Pullar
Mar 3, 2021
On sentencing, Lord Arthurson made the following statement in court:
“Jarron Rutherford and Kevin Gerrard Pullar, on 27 January 2021 at a preliminary hearing at Glasgow High Court you tendered pleas of guilty which can be summarised as follows. You, Mr Rutherford, pled guilty to a charge of extortion and three charges of attempted extortion, each of these aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime in terms of section 29 of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 and by bail aggravations. You also pled guilty to a charge of the theft of a car, to three charges libelling the contravention of section 27(1)(b) of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 and to two charges under the Road Traffic Act 1988, all of these with bail aggravations. You, Mr Pullar, pled guilty to one charge of extortion, one charge of attempted extortion and one charge libelling a contravention of section 16A of the Firearms Act 1968, each of these aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime in terms of section 29 of the 2010 Act.
In terms of your criminal history, each of you has to date accrued 15 groups of previous convictions, all at summary level, and neither of you has yet been subject to a custodial disposal. Pleas on this indictment were advanced on your behalf on the principal charges in terms acceptable to the Crown in your case Mr Rutherford prior to service of the indictment and in your case Mr Pullar shortly after the indictment was served.
I have considered with care the detailed terms of the available reports and the submissions in mitigation which have been advanced this morning on your behalf by your respective counsel. I note in particular your personal, family and social circumstances, your employment records, the remorse expressed by each of you to the authors of the reports and your acceptance of responsibility for these matters by way of your early pleas of guilty.
The gravity of the course of criminal offending before the Court today nevertheless means that the only appropriate disposal in respect of each of you will require to be a substantial custodial one. The charges of extortion and attempted extortion and the charge under the Firearms Act are plainly of particular gravity. I propose to sentence you on this indictment therefore as follows.
You, Mr Rutherford, will serve on charges 1, 2, 3 and 14, on an in cumulo basis, a sentence of 5 years imprisonment, backdated to your remand date of 13 July 2020 and discounted due to the timing of your pleas from a period of 7 years and 6 months. I attribute 4 months of that sentence to the various bail aggravations libelled. Rather than attributing a particular period to the aggravation libelled under section 29 of the 2010 Act, I take it into account as a marker of additional gravity in general terms in respect of these charges. Consecutive to that sentence you will further serve sentences, all on a concurrent basis with each other, of 6 months imprisonment, without discount, on each of charges 9, 10, 12, 15 and 21. On charge 11 you will be admonished and your licence endorsed and on charge 21 your licence will be endorsed and you will be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence for a period of 6 years from today. Finally, in respect of the aggravation in charge 1 in terms of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016, in the whole circumstances I decline to make a non-harassment order.
You, Mr Pullar, will serve on charges 2 and 3, on an in cumulo basis, a sentence of 4 years and 6 months imprisonment, discounted due to the timing of your pleas from a period of 6 years. On charge 4 you will serve a sentence of 45 months imprisonment, discounted from a period of 5 years. These sentences will be served concurrently and will run from today. Once more, rather than attributing a particular period to the aggravation libelled under section 29 of the 2010 Act, I take it into account as a marker of additional gravity in general terms in respect of these charges.”