SENTENCE UPHELD IN £20 MILLION DARK WEB CONSPIRACY
The Court of Appeal today published judgment in the case of Christopher Kirkby v Rex [2023] EWCA Crim 1293 in which John Ojakovoh successfully responded to an appeal against sentence by one of five defendants involved in a conspiracy to supply counterfeit Xanax tablets (active ingredient Alprazolam, a controlled drug of class C), with a street value of more than £20 million. All five had previously been sentenced after a four-day Newton hearing, prosecuted by John Ojakovoh and Dominic Hockley, to determine the factual basis for sentencing after the five defendants had pleaded guilty. The Appellant’s grounds of appeal asserted that his sentence was manifestly excessive because of disparity with co-defendants’ sentences, and failure to account for totality, but the Court agreed with John Ojakovoh that totality principles had been correctly applied, and that differences in the roles, level of culpability, and aggravating and mitigating features, fully justified the Appellant’s sentence of 9 years 6 months.
John Ojakovoh was instructed by CPS Serious Economic Organised Crime and International Directorate, and Tammy Mears of the CPS.