TO BE OR NOT TO BE A TOTTER

I was retired from the bench three and a half years ago and many fundamentals at court have changed since then, some for the better but more for the worse. One aspect of sentencing which was made very clear to my bench more than once was that in the case of motoring offences where the option available was to immediately  disqualify or issue penalty points resulting in an offender being a totter and thus receiving a mandatory six months ban the correct and appropriate procedure was to issue the requisite points and let justice take its course in the immediate disqualification of the miscreant.  I am unaware if this process was advised for my bench only or was laid down nationally.  Not surprisingly I am unaware of current advice given to magistrates. It would appear that at Norwich Magistrates Court discretion was used contrary to the aforementioned advice when I was active.  Perhaps a current court worker could clarify the situation?

PS The court reporter appears to forgotten how to add up.  8 penalty points as reported plus an additional 3 would not have reached the threshold for disqualification which is 12. Notwithstanding the error my post does pose a reasonable question. 

SENTENCING OUTCOMES AT KIRKLEES MAGISTRATES COURT

Results from Kirklees and neighbouring magistrates courts make interesting reading. Some readers might discern a pattern in or between courts` decisions; some might find the sentencing insufficiently severe or unjustifiably less than they would have applied.  The current sentencing guidelines are available here.  Whatever the subjective opinion there is no doubt that political considerations are driving sentencing every bit as much as judicially conceived desirable outcomes. 

A BENCH`S DECISION IS POLITICALLY DESTABILISING

There is one factor in the sentencing procedures that I found was overlooked many times by experienced colleagues and "news" to those recently appointed; namely protection of the public. I take that simple phrase to mean that people should be protected from what could be reasonably be considered as the likelihood of an offender committing future crimes based upon his/her previous record.  The thinking process for sentencers could be similar to that when bail is being considered for an individual who is awaiting trial or a future appearance. It`s not quite looking into a crystal ball but it is still a process where common sense is involved; a requirement no longer required for aspiring magistrates. An example of where it seems that public protection was recently a concept foreign to a lay bench in Lancashire is available here in a comprehensive report. The comments following should not be ignored.  They indicate how out of touch that bench was with their fellow Lancastrians.  Of course those who take the time to comment cannot be assumed to be a representative sample but ignoring such opinions is likely to distance "us" from "them" and that is politically destabilising.   

POLICE REFUSE LOST PROPERTY

Further evidence as if any were needed that the decimation of finances for policing is changing generations` habits of our police being regarded as with us rather than as in many jurisdictions  with them is shown by the recent but little publicised announcement by the Chief Constables` Council that the honest citizen`s instinct to hand in lost valuables at their nearest police station will be rebuffed. This decision is hoped to save £1.5 million annually although how such numbers can be predicted beats me. I suppose time and motion studies can conjure up any number that`s wanted. I am sure that I am not alone when as a child I found a banknote in the street and my parent said we must take it to the police station.  I doubt that many parents would have had such advice in recent times. The police, of course, are spouting the same old story about focusing scarce resources on areas of highest concern to ensure the public are kept safe.  

Breakdown in society does not necessarily come about by riots, marches, terrorism or even political corruption: it occurs when public faith in the administration of the nuts and bolts of our society leads to a feeling of impotence by Tom, Dick and Harriot. It is already happening in policing where attitudes similar to those of black Americans will spread to all areas and all sub groups of our society.  As a Conservative IMHO this is all as a result of unbridled rampaging capitalism being allowed to gorge itself beyond healthy limits.  It has allowed those ignorant of the effects of Marxism to follow a cult leader like the children followed the pied piper.  Just call me JP aka Jeremiah`s Prophesies. 

POLICE & LAW SOCIETY IN JOINT TIRADE AGAINST GOVERNMENT

It seems that the Law Society and senior police officials are getting together to spread the word that  falling numbers of crown court prosecutions are not some statistical accident or an indication that society is becoming more observant of the law. No; the numbers are indicative of fewer police to catch the miscreants in the first place and fewer police to process the cases for the CPS which is not itself directly criticised but as those in the legal world know only too well that organisation having been down sized by more than 10% in funds and  personnel in a decade is not without culpability.  See these press releases of the last few days from Devon,  Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire,  North Wales, and Warwickshire. An obvious PR exercise against austerity but how much did it cost and by whom was it sanctioned?

THIS JUDGE IS A BULLY

I have opined in the past that Justices of the Peace seem to be more harshly treated for alleged transgressions than members of the professional judiciary. The recent case of a judge threatening to jail a 14 year old child if she cried in court whilst her mother was giving evidence is a case in point. HH has been criticised by the Court of Appeal. 

Such flagrant bullying of a minor should not be concluded with just a rap across the legal knuckles. He should be charged with misconduct. If it were a magistrate making those remarks s/he would be on the scrapheap in short order. Whether it is right that part time unpaid lay J.P.s should be dealt with on a different basis from full or part time professional judiciary is another matter to be debated at another time. 

MAGISTRATES` MINIMUM AGE ON TWITTER POLL

I have recently had a dispute on Twitter on the worthiness of young magistrates cf their older counterparts. Whilst a fresh pair of eyes looking at a situation cannot be criticised, as a reason for having a minimum age of 18 it does not hold water. Barely out of school and with, according to latest science, a still not fully developed brain, it is unlikely that at such an age justice can be dispensed with maturity, wisdom and unfettered by personal considerations.  This argument can of course be developed for many more words. The representative of diversity protagonists seem to be virtually unassailable these days  but for those interested I have tweeted a poll on Twitter @bloggingJP on this topic. Whether you agree with me or not make your opinion public anonymously.  

MAGISTRACY BEING KILLED OFF

I am increasingly convinced that the selection process for magistrates is flawed. During my time on the bench it was common knowledge that there were perhaps 5%-10% of colleagues who were not intellectually or otherwise of a standard comparable with the job. Sanctions were rarely applied. Already this month four magistrates have been before the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.  Of these two have been removed from the magistracy owing to their failure to commit to the minimum number of sittings required and a third for drug possession. The fourth behaved in what only can be described in a crassly ignorant manner not befitting her position and was fortunate IMHO for not suffering the same fate as the other three. 

Altogether this year twelve Justices of the Peace have been removed from the magistracy the majority for failing to sit the minimum meagre requirement of a half day every fortnight; a schedule which does not allow the skills or knowledge necessary to be embodied in a lay magistrate sitting as a winger and is scandalously too little for a chairman to acquire the skills required.  These numbers are not unusual.  Every month JPs are thrown out for their unwillingness to devote the time required; a commitment that every appointments committee must surely emphasise.  So why does it happen?  It is a total waste of time and money to appoint and train somebody who fails at such a predictable hurdle.

Like so much else within the MOJ`s empire  the magistracy I believe is slowly being allowed to whither on the vine.  When it finally is killed off in its traditional form our legal system will be so much the poorer.  

COURT ESCAPES

During my time as an active JP I was not personally in a court from which a defendant had escaped although there were a couple of such episodes in an adjoining courtroom.  In my very early days there usually was a uniformed police officer in the remand court and others in the vicinity as witnesses to one case or another.  That level of security tailed off in the late nineties. Some docks were secure particularly in the remand courts but others presented no barrier to a determined miscreant who might have decided to abscond or do harm to those present. Recently two violent offenders breached what little there was of court security at Worcester Crown Court and Grimsby Crown Court respectively. I am a blogger and not a research statistician. There are no easily obtained statistics on the numbers of individuals who have attempted or actually achieved an escape from court.  The nearest document of significance is listed below.  It is not dated nor does it offer the aforementioned numbers; I would opine that that is deliberate obfuscation by the MOJ; a trait which has become the norm. When the numbers are hidden only the most dedicated will sniff them out.  So just another result from the decimation of police numbers initiated by an incompetent home secretary who is honing her position as the most incompetent prime minister in my lifetime. 

Not being sufficiently techie the link below should enable access of pdf. document.

The Management of Prisoners that present a risk of escape or violence ...

https://www.judiciary.uk/wp.../management_prisoners_risk_escape_violence.pdf

Annex 2 - Management of Prisoners who present a Risk of Escape or. Violence when attending Court - Application to Court for Improving Security. Arrangements .

SHAME ON HIM!

It is extremely risky and perhaps foolhardy to describe the actions of others in life and death situations when sitting safely at a keyboard.  I will take my chances. When people sign up for the armed forces or the fire or police service they know that they are likely to be in some physical danger at some time(s) in their career.  Those who are promoted to leadership roles must have indicated to their superiors that in addition to perhaps exhibiting rare skills of management or expertise that they have not forgotten the basics of the job; ie to run towards the danger whilst the rest of us run from it.  It seems that the acting Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at the time of the Westminster terrorist attack had forgotten these basics.  SHAME ON HIM! 

LADY WINDEMERE AND LORD DARLINGTON HAD IT CORRECT

It seems that it is not only in the UK where police patrols on motorways are far less common than a decade ago; after having just returned from travelling on autoroutes in Normandy and Brittany the French police appear to be equally absent. Although road casualties in France are far higher than here I felt that the French hare brained, must get there quicker than you attitude has diminished. Indeed I felt confident crossing a road by a zebra crossing that traffic would stop.......and it did. Which brings me to yesterday`s announcement from the Chief Constable of Lincolnshire that he is giving additional discretionary powers to the county`s PCSOs.  Many years ago I posted on creeping practices across many professions of hailing the extra help that "assistants" would give to principals.  The argument went that the employment of such people at relatively low wages would free up time for their senior professionals and would thus be cost effective.  Such briefings always emphasised that the role of the assistants would not impinge that of their professionally qualified superiors. Thus were born CPS prosecuting assistants, teaching assistants, dental assistants, optical assistants, nursing assistants and many others including police community support officers.  Of course it is now acknowledged from government to nursery that what the military term "mission creep" has truly engulfed us when these assistants take on the roles previously withheld from them and for which latterly pseudo qualifications have been required.  And all this is for the single purpose of saving money whatever the cost to society in the longer term. 

Most generally law abiding citizens come into contact with police only for traffic matters.  Police constables having survived intensive scrutiny to be accepted, with their extensive training in the classroom and on the job learn how to handle the sensitive interface between them and the public; whether a firm warning is sufficient right up to the powers of arrest.  My experience in practice and whilst on the bench is that PCSOs lack such judgement.  That`s not surprising considering the low level of academic requirement and a starting salary of £19,500 maximum.  Now these assistant police officers by any other name are being given enhanced powers by a constabulary which Her Majesty`s Inspector of Constabulary concluded was below the "must do better" level of a school report card. 

This is the time we live in when a former home secretary applying the rules of austerity recently agreed with the then 2018 home secretary Amber Rudd that rising crime bears no relationship to the decimation in the numbers of police officers and that government funding had increased.    

Never was the phrase "government that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing" more applicable.........with apologies to Oscar Wilde.