Barrett, Anthony

Anthony Barrett was convicted at Northampton Crown Court in April 2021 of conspiracy to supply a class A drug. He was sentenced in February 2024, nearly three years after his arrest.

During sentencing, the judge said: “I consider the appropriate sentence, prior to any credit for plea, is ten years.” He then applied a 25 per cent discount for Mr Barrett’s guilty plea and reduced his ten-year sentence to 7 years 9 months. He then applied a further 2 years 6 months discount for the delay in sentencing to arrive at 5 years 3 months.

In the CCRC’s view, a 25 per cent discount applied to the ten-year sentence should have reduced Mr Barrett’s sentence to 7 years 6 months, with the further deduction bringing his total sentence to 5 years.

Therefore, there was a real possibility the Court of Appeal would find that the judge made an error in the calculation of Mr Barrett’s sentence and would reduce it accordingly.

The CCRC referred the sentence in June 2026.