Two Just Stop Oil supporters get suspended sentences for spraying paint on car dealerships

Two Just Stop Oil supporters received suspended sentences on 20 February after pleading guilty to criminal damage by spraying paint on a number of high end car dealerships in 2022. They took the action to demand an end to new oil and gas licensing.

Posh car dealerships targeted

On 26 October 2022, Emma Brown and Carmen Lean sprayed orange paint from a fire extinguisher over the premises of several high end car dealerships on Berkeley Square and Bruton Street, in London’s swanky Mayfair district. These included HR Owen, Jack Barclay and Ferrari Mayfair. They had previously pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal damage and have now been sentenced at Southwark Crown Court.

Judge Tomlinson gave both defendants a 10 month sentence (suspended for 18 months) and ordered them to complete 100 hours of unpaid work within 12 months. In addition they’ll have to pay victim compensation of £1,500 each to the car dealerships. The Judge has recommended a schedule of £50 a month.

A Just Stop Oil spokesperson said:

Politicians and the media may be distracted by the rising threat of war, but we know that this is nothing compared with the threat posed by the planetary heating equivalent of 365 million Hiroshima bombs being absorbed by our oceans and atmosphere every year.

And yet nearly two years after our demand to end new oil and gas became government policy, three people are in prison right now for doing all they can to limit climate catastrophe and hundreds of our supporters continue to face the legal consequences of standing up to the fossil fuel death cult.

The prosecution initially accused the defendants of drilling a hole in the Jack Barkley Bentley showroom window. Although it later admitted that they might not have done so. However it argued that they had nonetheless caused paint to spatter inside the premises. The repair costs for clearing up the paint were said to total £13,538 and the window replacement was £19,925.

The Judge concluded it was unlikely that the defendants had made the hole in the window and so did not include window replacement costs in the calculation of compensation. He told the defendants that:

the building looked all pretty ugly after your work.

If convicted on this charge, the defendants would have likely faced sentences of 12 months in prison, not necessarily suspended.

In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. And on 27 March 2025 it announced an end to the campaign of action. However, supporters promise to continue telling the truth in court, speaking out for political prisoners and helping build what comes next.

Featured image via Just Stop Oil