Request to assess whether sentence in squalid shed case was 'unduly lenient'
A man who avoided jail after exploiting a vulnerable victim found living in a squalid shed is to have his sentence examined by the Attorney General's Office.
Peter Swailes Jr, 56, was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court to a nine-month jail term, suspended for 18 months.
Solicitor General Alex Chalk told MPs he would give the case "close attention" after being asked to review it under the unduly lenient sentence scheme.
The court heard the victim had been "used and exploited" for 40 years while living with the defendant's father Peter Swailes Sr.
He was made to live in a horse box, a disused caravan and more recently in a shed on a residential site north of Carlisle.
The Crown accepted the defendant's guilty plea last month to conspiracy to arrange or facilitate the travel of another with a view to exploitation on the basis he was unaware of the victim's living conditions.
Swailes Jr, of Low Harker, Carlisle, accepted that from "time to time" his father would contact him and arrange for the victim to work with him, and that "on occasion" he paid him less than his minimum entitlement.
A pre-sentence report assessed Swailes Jr as posing a "very low" risk of reoffending, and also his personal mitigation, including poor health.
Swailes Sr, who died aged 80 last year while awaiting trial, had denied the offence.
Speaking in the House of Commons, Conservative MP Peter Bone (Wellingborough) said: "On February 4 this year Peter Swailes Jr was sentenced for a crime that involved financial fraud.
"A person was kept in his shed for up to 40 years.
"The CPS managed to get a conviction but he was not sentenced to any time in prison.
"I wonder if the Attorney General would look at this case and see if it was unduly lenient."
Mr Chalk replied: "Yes, of course we will look at that.
"Sentencing is of course a matter for the independent courts, but there is a power to refer cases where they're unduly lenient and I'd be very happy to give that close attention."
The victim received specialist help after he was rescued and now lives in supported accommodation outside Cumbria.