16-year-old Avoids Prison after Carrying a Knife

Case study summary

Our client was a young man who had made the mistake of carrying a knife in public. He had recently got a full-time job and was terrified that this offence would ruin everything he had worked towards. We convinced the court not to send him to prison.

Case study

Our client was a 16-year-old who had been stopped by the police and found to have a camouflaged lock knife. He and his family were terrified after he was charged and told to go to court. Therefore, they instructed our specialist criminal defence lawyers.

He had purchased the knife after seeing it in a shop and thinking it looked interesting. This was clearly a brief lapse in his judgment. He had no involvement in gangs and never intended to hurt anyone with the knife. He was a hard-working young man, who was already in full-time employment in the construction industry. He was worried that his future could be at risk as a result of this mistake.

One of the challenges in his case was that he had been stopped near a disturbance where people had been badly injured. This wider context would make any judge take a dim view of the offence.

Our well-prepared mitigation convinced the court that our client was a young man who had made a one-off mistake. We used character references from his family and employers to show the court that he has no tenancy to be involved in criminality.

The court accepted our arguments and imposed a 9-month referral order. This means that our client will be able to work with probation services, and has avoided prison. He has been able to keep his job, and he can carry on building his future.