Particle.news
Download on the App Store

North East Courts Issue Life Terms and Lengthy Sentences in Year-End Sentencing Roundup

A late-December roundup confirms convictions across serious violence, high-value fraud, organized crime, sexual exploitation and deadly driving, resulting in some of the year’s heaviest sentences.

Overview

  • Three men — Sean Reay, Kelvin Craig Lawson and Thomas Lee Sterling — received life sentences for the murder of Barry Dawson, with minimum terms of 32, 28 and 26 years.
  • Fraud architect Timothy Paul Nellis was jailed for 17 years and nine months, while co-defendant Sundeep Chahal was sentenced in absentia to 20 years and remains at large.
  • EncroChat-linked gang member Simon Lancaster was jailed for 14 years and eight months for drug and firearms conspiracies, taking total terms for the group to more than 70 years.
  • A group convicted of raping and sexually exploiting underage girls were jailed for a combined 39 years following offences involving six victims.
  • Sahil Nagpal was jailed for ten years for causing death by dangerous driving; other outcomes included 11 years and three months for child rapist Taranvir Galsinh and 12 months for absconder Michael Curran.