Where compensation directions under s 77B of the Victims' Support and Rehabilitation Act 1996 are made against co-offenders for overlapping losses, the directions should be varied to ensure that payments by one co-offender reduce the liability of the other to the extent the payment covers the same loss. Each co-offender is liable as a joint tortfeasor for the whole of the damage, and the asserted impecuniosity of an offender is not ordinarily a reason for declining to make a direction. A sentencing judge's treatment of an offender's early personal history as entirely irrelevant (rather than of reduced weight) constitutes legal error warranting appellate intervention.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 5 later cases that cite this judgment.
1 of the 5 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.