According to the Attorney General’s Office, the Court of Appeal on 28 July 2026 increased Liberty Mitchell’s sentence from 6 years and 8 months to 9 years and 3 months after Attorney General Ellie Reeves KC MP referred the case under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme. Mitchell had been sentenced at Gloucester Crown Court on 18 December 2025 after pleading guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving, two counts of causing death whilst uninsured and three counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. (gov.uk) The significance extends beyond the revised custodial term. The case is a clear example of how an apparently low Crown Court sentence can be tested against the statutory public-interest review process operated by the Law Officers and, where the legal threshold is met, returned to the Court of Appeal. (legislation.gov.uk)
The Attorney General’s Office said the collision happened on 2 December 2022 on the approach to Aldsworth in Gloucestershire, when Mitchell attempted to overtake three vehicles on the wrong side of the road at nearly 100mph in a 60mph limit and struck a taxi, causing a multi-vehicle pile-up. Taxi driver Octavian Codreanu died at the scene, passenger Moyra Whelan later died at Southmead Hospital, and six other people were injured, three seriously. (gov.uk) The same government statement said Mitchell was travelling between cleaning jobs and that her insurance did not cover business use. It also said police found social media videos showing her filming herself while driving dangerously, including one at 100mph and another showing the car move onto the opposite side of the road into the path of oncoming traffic. (gov.uk)
The Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme rests on section 36 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. That provision allows the Attorney General, with the leave of the Court of Appeal, to refer certain Crown Court sentences for review where it appears that the sentence was unduly lenient and the case is one to which the statutory scheme applies. Schedule 3 to the 1988 Act sets a 28-day period for notice of a reference from the day sentence was passed. (legislation.gov.uk) GOV.UK guidance says anyone can ask the Attorney General’s Office to examine an eligible Crown Court sentence. The Office must send any reference to the Court of Appeal by 5pm on the last working day within 28 calendar days, but the appeal hearing itself can take place later; that is why a sentence imposed on 18 December 2025 could still be determined by the Court of Appeal on 28 July 2026. (gov.uk)
The policy safeguard is deliberately narrow. Ministry of Justice guidance published on 9 April 2026 says a sentence is not treated as ‘unduly lenient’ merely because it looks low; the test is whether it falls outside the range of sentences reasonably available to the judge after taking the relevant factors into account. The Attorney General’s role page separately records sentence referrals as one of the Law Officers’ independent public-interest functions. (gov.uk) That distinction matters because the scheme is not a general second appeal on public dissatisfaction. GOV.UK states that the Court of Appeal may keep the sentence unchanged, increase it, or refuse to hear the case, even after the Attorney General’s Office has reviewed it. (gov.uk)
For causing death by dangerous driving, GOV.UK’s penalties guidance says the maximum penalty is life imprisonment, the minimum driving disqualification is five years, and an extended retest is obligatory where the court disqualifies. The Sentencing Council also states that courts must follow relevant sentencing guidelines unless doing so would be contrary to the interests of justice. (gov.uk) The definitive guideline identifies an obviously highly dangerous manoeuvre and speed significantly above the limit as culpability A features. It also treats serious injury to additional victims and driving for commercial purposes as aggravating factors, and says cases involving more than one death may justify an upward adjustment beyond the single-death starting point. The facts summarised by the Attorney General’s Office plainly match the speed, manoeuvre and additional-injury features, and may also raise the commercial-driving issue because Mitchell was said to be travelling between jobs, although the government statement did not set out the Court of Appeal’s full reasoning. (sentencingcouncil.org.uk)
The Mitchell case therefore functions as more than a case note. It shows that serious road traffic cases can move into a separate accountability route once sentence is passed, and that the public explanation of the scheme matters almost as much as the legal test because the referral window is short and procedural. According to GOV.UK, the scheme covers all indictable-only offences and certain either-way offences sentenced in the Crown Court. (gov.uk) The government has also been trying to widen awareness of the process. On 9 April 2026 it said victims and bereaved families would have up to six months to seek reconsideration where the interests of justice test is met, while other members of the public would remain on the standard 28-day timetable. In the Mitchell case, the result of that wider system was concrete: the Court of Appeal added two years and seven months to the original term. (gov.uk)