Two offenders who left victims needing hospital treatment have both been given longer prison terms after their cases were heard together at the Court of Appeal following referrals under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

On 14 November 2021, Zachary Jagger, now 27, got involved in a group altercation after being refused entry to a party at a private residence. Following the fight, he left the scene before returning with the other offender Charlie Hearn, now 29, and the two got involved in another group fight.

While driving back to the group fight, Hearn and Jagger met two victims who had been on their way home after an evening out. These two victims were not involved with the party or the group fight. Hearn threatened one victim with a Stanley knife and slashed another on the back with the blade, causing a 23 cm laceration which required stitches. Jagger and Hearn then returned to the scene of the group fight, during which Jagger got back into his car and intentionally drove at the group twice.

Jagger then deliberately drove into another victim twice, who Hearn attacked with the Stanley knife. The victim was left with a double leg fracture and a laceration to her face.

In a separate incident in 2019 Jagger attacked a victim, inflicting a wound that required 30 stitches. Hearn was not present on this occasion.

On 10 August 2022, Jagger was sentenced to 6 years’ imprisonment with an extended licence of 4 years at Chelmsford Crown Court for offences including wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, affray and dangerous driving. Hearn was sentenced on the same day at Chelmsford Crown Court to 4 years’ imprisonment for offences including unlawful wounding, threatening another with a blade and affray.

Both of the offenders’ sentences were referred to the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme for being too low.

On 03 November 2022, the Court found both sentences to be unduly lenient. Jagger’s sentence was increased to 13 years’ imprisonment with an extended licence of 3 years, while Hearn was ordered to serve a sentence of 6 years’ imprisonment with a 3-year extended licence.

Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General Michael Tomlinson MP said:

These were intensely vicious attacks that left the victims with serious wounds, with some needing hospital treatment. I did not believe that the original sentences adequately reflected the violent nature of the offending that occurred, so I welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal to sentence both Jagger and Hearn to longer sentences.

• Four winners revealed from across Europe
• Winners represent range of sectors, including digital health, cyber security and artificial intelligence
• All finalists to receive a personalised business development package, connecting them to the UK

The UK Government’s 2022 tech scale-ups programme, the Tech Rocketship Awards, reached its conclusion today. The Awards identified the brightest and best tech companies and will accelerate the global growth of its winners, through curated programmes connecting them with the UK’s ecosystem of investors, incubators and High Potential Opportunity (HPO) clusters.

The Grand Finale saw eight finalists battle it out in live ‘dragons den’ style pitches in front of an expert panel of judges at the residence of His Majesty’s Ambassador to Portugal, Chris Sainty. The finalists were invited to the UK pavilion at Web Summit afterwards for an awards ceremony.

The Tech Rocketship Awards Categories were: AI, 5G, Agri-Tech, Digital Health, Cybersecurity, Climate Tech and a Trailblazers Award – Diversity in Tech.

Winners:

• Gold – Digital Health – Enbiosis (Turkey): Analyses the human gut microbiome using metadata and AI to provide personalized health and wellness solutions.

• Silver – Cyber Security – Facephi (Spain): Provides secure user digital identity verification and specialises in digital onboarding and biometric authentication solutions.

• Bronze – Artificial Intelligence – Jungle AI (The Netherlands): Applies AI to increase the uptime and performance of electromechanical assets such as wind turbines, solar farms or industrial production lines.

• Trailblazers Award (Promoting Diversity in Tech) – Digital Health – Resistomap (Finland): The first end-to-end platform in the world that monitors antibiotic resistance bacteria and pre-warns clients in case of a potential outbreak.

Chris Barton, His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Europe said:

There is no better place for ambitious tech companies to grow than the UK. This is the number one country in Europe for Unicorns, and UK tech VC investment is the third largest in the world. Our tech sector is the home of forward-thinking innovators, venture capital, R&D clusters and opportunities for growth across the whole of the UK.

Tech Rocketships will provide the lucky winners with a rocket-powered, fully-tailored direct route to the financiers, incubators, tech-savvy customers, and all the infrastructure needed to help them make that next great leap from ambitious scale-up to unicorn.

Kenan Poleo, His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for EECAN (Eastern Europe Central Asian Network) said:

Turkish companies responded brilliantly to the Tech Rocketship Awards. The awards offer companies in the vibrant Turkish tech ecosystem a rocket-powered, fully-tailored direct route to the financiers, incubators, tech-savvy customers, and infrastructure needed to help them make that next great leap from ambitious scale-up to unicorn.

Priya Guha, Venture Partner, Merrian Ventures & Non-Executive Director at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Digital Catapult said:

I was thrilled to be part of the judging panel for this year’s Tech Rocketship Awards and to hear from some of the incredible European tech businesses that are looking to the UK to scale-up and go global.

Whilst they represented a breadth of sectors from biotech to artificial intelligence to AgriTech, all of them will find the UK a great place to scale. In the UK, we have a wealth of diverse tech talent in researchers, developers and experienced scale-up leaders. We also have an open and welcoming business environment and competitive set up costs, all of which will be invaluable to these companies. The UK is rich in opportunity for tech businesses and I look forward to seeing how the UK will be part of the success stories for these fantastic award winners.

The panel of judges was led by experienced entrepreneurs, dealmakers and representatives of government and industry:

• Priya Guha, Venture Partner, Merrian Ventures, Non-Executive Director at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Digital Catapult
• Dr Mike Short CBE, Chief Scientific Adviser, Department for International Trade (DIT)
• Jude Ower MBE, Founder & CEO of Playmob, Global Entrepreneur Programme Dealmaker, DIT
• Christian Kumar, Chief Executive Officer, Capital Kinetics

More information about the next awards will soon be communicated to find the next cohort of top tech businesses. Companies can already sign up for further details.

Full details about the competition, including terms and conditions are on the Tech Rocketship Awards website.

All finalists:

• 5G – Neutroon (Spain): Open-API cloud platform that makes private LTE/5G and Neutral Host simple and scalable for operators and end-users.

• Cyber Security – Facephi (Spain): Provides secure user digital identity verification and specialises in digital onboarding and biometric authentication solutions.

• Climate Tech – Monolithos (Greece): Manufactures direct-fit aftermarket automotive catalytic converters.

• Digital Health – Enbiosis (Turkey): Analyses the human gut microbiome using metadata and AI to provide personalized health and wellness solutions.

• Artificial Intelligence – Jungle AI (The Netherlands): Applies AI to increase the uptime and performance of electromechanical assets such as wind turbines, solar farms or industrial production lines.

• AgriTech – Blue White Robotics (Israel): The ‘robots-as-a-service’ platform provides solutions for building autonomous farms.

• Cyber Security – Authenteq (Germany): Is the world’s first fully automated identity verification eKYC™ platform. Their AI-powered system allows companies and services to onboard users in just 35 seconds.

• Digital Health – Resistomap (Finland): Is the first end-to-end platform in the world that monitors antibiotic resistance bacteria and pre-warns clients in case of a potential outbreak.