First Gang Injunction obtained under new powers results in custodial sentence

On 1^st February 2012, a teenager from Edmonton became the first person to be committed to prison for breach of a ‘Gang Injunction’ which had been obtained against him by the London Borough of Enfield: For BBC news article, click here.  Following a contested committal hearing at the West London County Court, the teenager was found to have committed 3 breaches of the injunction during an incident of serious public disorder involving known gang members, threats of violence and the presence at the scene of bladed articles.  The court held the breaches warranted an immediate custodial sentence of 15 months.  There had been 9 previous breaches of the injunction in its interim and final form.  Counsel for the London Borough of Enfield was Jennifer Oscroft.  Kuljit Bhogal and Sian Davies had also acted for Enfield in order to secure the Gang Injunction, which was the first of its kind obtained under new legislative provisions, and for the committal of the earlier breaches. 

A ’Gang Injunction’ or ‘Injunction to Prevent Gang-Related Violence’ is a new species of injunction introduced when the relevant provisions of Part IV of the Policing and Crime Act 2009 came into force on 31^st January 2011.  It is a civil tool that allows the police or local authority to apply to a county court or the High Court for an injunction against an individual to prevent gang-related violence.  The injunction imposes a range of both prohibitions and requirements on the individual, designed to prevent them from engaging in, or encouraging or assisting gang-related violence and to protect them from gang–related violence.  The Home Office describes the aims of the injunctions to be firstly, to break-down violent gang culture, secondly, to prevent the violent behaviour of gang members from escalating and thirdly, to engage gang members in positive activities to help them to leave the gang.

Last week, the first meeting of the Greater London Authority’s Policing and Crime Committee considered the scale of gang activity in London and the effective of measures to combat it, including Operation Connect, the Metropolitan Police Service Unit set up to tackle violence driven by gang culture.  Commander Steve Rodhouse, Met Police lead officer for Operation Connect, told the Committee that London has approximately 400 gangs with just over 60 of those identified as the most harmful; further details are available in this GLA Report: click here.

Cornerstone Barristers provide seminars and training on Gang Injunctions under the Policing and Crime Act 2009, Anti-Social Behaviour Injunctions under the Housing Act 1996 and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, in addition to updates on the proposed legislation coming into force in 2012 following the Government’s recent consultation exercise ‘More Effective Responses to Anti-Social Behaviour’.