SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing, His Lordship made the following comments in court:

"John Connor Callaghan, on 23 September 2026 at a preliminary hearing at Glasgow High Court you tendered pleas of guilty to some 29 charges spread across two separate indictments. Your co-accused in this case will require to be sentenced at a later date due to his non-compliance with the preparation of required reports. A lengthy agreed factual narrative was read into the court record at the pleading diet.  I do not propose this morning to rehearse that extensive material.

You have pled guilty to one charge of theft, seven charges of reset, eight charges of theft by housebreaking; and miscellaneous statutory offences which include offences under the Road Traffic Act 1988 comprising two charges of section 2 dangerous driving, one contravention of section 170, seven charges of section 103 driving while disqualified and seven section 143 charges of driving without insurance; also two charges under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 section 44; one charge under section 4(3)(b) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, one charge of contravening the Prisons (Scotland) Act 1989 section 41, and two charges under the Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995, one for contravention of section 47 (two machetes) and one for contravention of section 49 (one machete). 

You are aged 28 and have accrued to date some 29 groups of previous convictions, six at sheriff and jury level, three for theft by housebreaking (one involving a knife), four for section 2 dangerous driving and seven for section 103 driving while disqualified.  You have served 13 prior custodial sentences.

Valuations of the vehicles stolen in this case have been helpfully provided by the Crown on my request for this hearing.  During a libel period running from December 2024 to April 2025 you were criminally responsible for the theft or reset of, on my count, approximately £329,000 worth of motor vehicles. 

I have had the opportunity to listen carefully this morning to the submissions of your senior counsel in mitigation, and note in particular what has been said by him regarding your established and protective family circumstances; your prior adverse childhood experiences; the lack of sophistication in your admittedly prolific offending; your role in the housebreaking offences; and the real utilitarian benefit of your pleas of guilty.

You are plainly a committed and prolific offender, heedless of the misery and mayhem left by you in your wake. The general public requires protection from your criminal behaviour, which appears to have escalated in its scale and scope to the degree that you very properly now appear in the High Court on indictment. The sentencing exercise before the court today has as its principal objectives, therefore, public protection, as well as retribution and deterrence. The in cumulo custodial periods selected will also reflect the important sentencing principle of totality.

John Connor Callaghan, on the principal indictment you will on the housebreaking and other dishonesty charges, namely charges 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 16, 19, 28, 38, 42, 44, 53, 56 and 59, serve an in cumulo sentence of 6 years imprisonment, reduced due to the timing and utility of your guilty pleas from a notional headline tariff of 8 years, with 6 months of that headline period being imposed in respect of the various bail aggravations libelled.  Consecutive to that sentence you will additionally, on the dangerous driving charges, weapons charges and charges brought under the Misuse of Drugs Act and the Prisons (Scotland) Act, namely charges 21, 27, 45, 61, 66 and 70, serve an in cumulo sentence of 4 years imprisonment, with an early plea utility reduction from a notional headline period of 5 years and 6 months, with 6 months of that headline period attributable to the libelled bail aggravations.  You will be admonished on charges 17, 36 and 46.  On the second indictment, you will be admonished and your licence endorsed on charges 8, 12, 16, 18, 22, 28 and 30, and you will, on the driving while disqualified charges, namely charges 7, 11, 15, 17, 21, 27 and 29, serve an in cumulo concurrent sentence of 30 imprisonment, with an early plea utility reduction from a period of 40 months.  

The custodial disposals imposed today by this court, namely a total of 10 years imprisonment on the principal indictment and 30 months imprisonment to be served concurrently on the second indictment, will each be backdated to the date of your initial remand into custody in these proceedings, namely 8 May 2025.

Finally, in respect of the dangerous driving and disqualified driving charges featuring across the two indictments, all as listed already above, you will be disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence, disqualified from driving in other words, for life."

5 November 2026