DRIVING A COACH AND HORSES THROUGH LOCKDOWN LEGISLATION AND THE INCOMPETENCE OF POLICE, CPS AND COURTS

On 6th April I posted "COVID-19 PROSECUTION// THE FINAL CHAPTER".  The case was widely reported.  Provisional data released two weeks ago shows that under lockdown legislation 13,445 FPNs have been recorded by forces in England between March 27 and May 11 while 799 were issued in Wales in the same period – a total of 14,244. National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) chairman Martin Hewitt is now being urged to launch a review of all fixed penalty notices (FPNs) handed out in England and Wales using the regulations. Of the 43 regional police forces in England and Wales, the Metropolitan Police has recorded the highest number of fines with 906, followed by Thames Valley Police with 866, and North Yorkshire with 843. Warwickshire issued the fewest with just 31. How many of these fixed penalty notices have been paid is unknown but it is likely that the 50% reduction for prompt payment will have persuaded a large number to have been settled.  And now the revelation by the Director of Public Prosecutions that "most of the people wrongly charged under the Coronavirus Act were probably not legally represented" has set the cat amongst the pigeons. Providing that the fine is paid within the specified period and the matter is dealt with outside the criminal courts then it will not amount to a conviction.  If, however, it remains unpaid and the matter is brought to the magistrates court where the defendant is convicted a criminal offence will be recorded and will have to be declared when requested by a prospective employer or professional body. 

Like many of the so called regulations and guidance issued by the government since February those responsible for the drafting have many questions to answer; their incompetence having been compounded by the police, the CPS and the courts.  The same tendencies by police currently in America have been seen here albeit on a much reduced scale:- policing by the Stasi playbook. I hope the Home Office with its dire interest in the dispensation of true justice takes note but when the prime minister operates a do as I say policy driving a coach and horses through his own legislation but excludes his most important advisor from that stricture I doubt it.