16-year-old Avoids Prison after Carrying a Knife

Case study summary

Our specialist criminal lawyers represented a teenager who had accepted carrying a knife. We persuaded the court to give him a referral order and he avoided custody.

Case study

Our client was a 16-year-old charged with carrying a bladed article. He was terrified about what the charge would lead to, so he hired our specialist criminal lawyers to represent him.

Our client had wrongly brought a knife that he thought looked interesting and was carrying it around. He was stopped by the police and admitted to having the knife on him. Police seized the knife and he was later charged with this offence.

It was clear that our client was not a young man who was regularly in trouble with the police, but a teenager who had made a poor decision. After leaving school, he had too much time on his hands and was at risk of going down the wrong path. To the client’s credit, since being stopped by the police he had found himself full-time work and was doing very well for himself.

Our challenge was to persuade the court that our client had already started taking steps to improve his own life. We put together a package of character references which demonstrated that the client recognised the foolishness of his actions and was no longer at risk of making poor decisions. Using this material, we were able to persuade the court that our client should be given a referral order and the chance to work with probation services, as opposed to a custodial sentence. He is now able to focus on his new job, which he is enjoying, and building the life that he wants.