A South Yorkshire drug dealer was sentenced in May 2025 to three years in prison for two separate drug offences, but the judge remained unaware that the defendant had been arrested again while awaiting trial. This third arrest occurred in April 2025, just weeks before sentencing, when police found him carrying approximately £500 worth of drugs whilst driving an uninsured vehicle. Had the judge possessed knowledge of this additional crime, mandatory sentencing guidelines would have required a minimum seven-year term for a third-strike drug offender, substantially exceeding the sentence imposed.

When the case returned to court over a year later, the presiding judge declined to retrospectively apply the mandatory minimum despite the three-conviction threshold. The judge cited exceptional circumstances and the defendant's demonstrated rehabilitation efforts, including his early release from a previous sentence owing to good conduct and his new role as a father, in deciding that a rigid mandatory term would be counterproductive to his reformation. The defendant ultimately received a three-year suspended sentence, with the court finding that the rehabilitative progress already demonstrated would be undermined by additional custodial time.