According to the Attorney General’s Office, the Court of Appeal on 19 August 2026 increased Dimitrije Dragovic’s prison term from 2 years and 2 months to 3 years and 4 months after Attorney General Ellie Reeves KC MP referred the case under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. The increase of 1 year and 2 months makes the case a clear example of how sentence review and prison security policy can intersect. (gov.uk)
The facts set out by the Government point to planning rather than opportunism. Police tracked Dragovic from his home in Thurnscoe, South Yorkshire, to London on 14 November 2025 to meet co-conspirators. On 15 November he checked into a Suffolk hotel under a false name and collected a bag from a car. In the early hours of 16 November he travelled towards the A143, walked to a nearby field, discarded the bag when he realised he was under surveillance, and tried to flee across a river before being detained by police dogs. (gov.uk)
The bag mattered because of both its contents and its location. The Attorney General’s Office said it contained a drone with a range of more than three miles, cannabis, tobacco, mobile phones, SIM cards, dongles and charging equipment, and that HMP Highpoint was within the drone’s flight range. On the Government’s account, this was not a minor prison-rule breach but an attempt to use technology to move drugs and communications equipment into the prison estate while avoiding conventional perimeter controls. (gov.uk)
At Ipswich Crown Court on 20 February 2026, Dragovic was sentenced after pleading guilty to conspiracy to convey a list A article into or out of prison, conspiracy to convey a list B item into or out of prison, and breaching a suspended sentence order. In prison law, controlled drugs fall within list A, while mobile telephones and certain recording devices fall within list B. Crown Prosecution Service guidance also states that SIM cards and chargers are treated as phone-related items for prison offences. In practical terms, the prohibited articles were the legal focus, while the drone appears to have been the intended delivery method. (gov.uk)
The sentence increase also helps explain what the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme does. GOV.UK guidance says the scheme allows the Law Officers to ask the Court of Appeal to review certain Crown Court sentences in the public interest if they may be unduly lenient. The court may leave a sentence unchanged, refuse the reference, or increase the term. The Government further describes the power as exceptional and applies a test of whether the sentence fell outside the range reasonably available to the original judge. (gov.uk)
For prison policy, the case sits within a wider public protection problem. Ministry of Justice policy papers describe a secure prison estate as part of protecting the public and supporting rehabilitation, while Government material on telecommunications restriction orders says illicit mobile phones allow prisoners to communicate without supervision, assist serious organised crime and enable offending beyond prison walls. Official HMPPS statistics recorded 1,497 drone incidents in prisons in England and Wales in the year to March 2026, alongside 11,916 incidents where mobile phones were found and 5,285 incidents involving SIM cards. (gov.uk)
Recent ministerial announcements show why appellate decisions of this kind are being read alongside operational security measures. In 2026 the Government announced further spending on counter-drone work, including anti-drone research, exterior netting, reinforced windows and new cell window grilles, after reporting a sharp rise in drone activity over the longer term. The policy meaning of the Dragovic case is therefore straightforward: drones, drugs, phones and associated accessories are being treated by ministers, prison authorities and the courts as linked risks to prison order, staff safety and public safety outside the gate. (gov.uk)