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Thursday, 8 December 2016

MANCHESTER POLICE//A LAW UNTO THEMSELVES


"The complexity of the challenges police officers face means that their leaders need to set the highest standards of integrity, honesty and objectivity if they are to be trusted and respected by the public.  You hold positions of great authority.  You have to sustain public confidence. You hold the police to account and it is up to you to demonstrate by example and live by high ethical standards".

These are some of the words of   Richard Thomas, a Member of the Committee on Standards in Public Life when he spoke earlier this week at the CoPaCC "OPCC Transparency" Quality Mark awards.

Perhaps Greater Manchester Police live in a different world.

KNIFE OFFENDERS INCARCERATED.

There are many who bemoan the increase in numbers being given custodial sentences.For those of us with experience of actually making those decisions they are not made lightly.  Indeed they are often arrived at with a heavy heart. The figures released today on offences associated with knife possession illustrate a problem that does not go away.  Judges and magistrates are faced with protection of the public in addition to consideration of the offender.  The public outcry when such a balance goes wrong and further crimes are committed is not pleasant for those involved in the original decision. Transform Justice and the Howard League eg, both lobbyists beloved of the intelligentsia, would have many such offenders rehabilitated without incarceration: so would we all.  In practical, financial and political terms it ain`t going to happen. Whether that is a welcome or unwelcome conclusion is not for this post.  
 

Wednesday, 7 December 2016

THE DECLINE OF THE JUSTICE OF THE PEACE

The Magistrates Association cannot answer the question owing to its becoming increasingly irrelevant to Justices of the Peace and consequently supposedly represents around only 80% of a reduced workforce.  That question which has been in the minds of many interested parties was finally answered two days ago by a written parliamentary answer; to wit the numbers of J.P.s who have resigned over the last few years.  The important word is "resigned" because thousands have been compulsorily retired since 2010.  

Oliver Heald The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice

The requested information is provided below. Figures are compiled by financial year.
(a) Since 1st April 2016 to date, there have been 842 resignations
(b) During the financial year 2015/16, there were 952 resignations
(c) Since 1st April 2010 to date, there were 8,253 resignations

Latest figures show that in April 2016 there were 17,552 serving magistrates of which 57% were aged 60 and over. Resignations, however, are not retirements.  In 2010 there were 26,970 serving magistrates.  In most business activities so called human resources officers would have immediate responses to such a rapid decline in participation and plans would be in hand to investigate and conclude as to what remedies if any were required in the situation.  My opinion for what it`s worth is that deep in the bowels of Petty France London SW1 such plans are indeed being considered.  Magistrates have resigned in line with the closure of over one third of the magistrates` courts in England and Wales. Increased travelling time for the millions of willing and reluctant participants in court procedures has not held any sway with arguments for retaining local courts especially in rural areas such as North Wales and Cumbria.   But J.P.s have voted with their feet, their cars or on public transport.  They have not been prepared to spend an hour or more travelling each way as members of an enlarged bench to a distant court building. Many do not relish the prospect of being super social workers in the name of rehabilitative justice; a prospect that the MOJ is holding out as an answer to overcrowded prisons. They certainly have found the attitude of HMCTS in treating them as unpaid employees not to their liking.  Indeed the removal of any sense of being independent local Justices dispensing local justice in local courts  whilst attractive perhaps to supercilious lawyers  and greasy pole climbing Justices` Clerks has had much to do with the disillusionment felt by so many of my ex colleagues. 

Sad to say we are seeing the last decade of magistrates` courts as they have developed since the 14th Century with local worthies independent and unpaid, generally ethnically representative of their communities being replaced by courts over which preside single professional judges beholden to the state for their salaries and pensions.

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

DRIVING OFFENCES//THE TOTALITY PRINCIPLE

Currently the fixed penalty for using a mobile phone whilst driving is 3 penalty points and a £100 fine.  For driving without insurance an offender can be fined up to £5000 in court and be subject to 6-8 penalty points or even a driving disqualification of up to 12 months if there are severe aggravating circumstances. Indeed the penalty for mobile phone use will be increased next year to 6 penalty points and a fine of £200.  When it comes to sentencing offenders for multiple driving offences in actual practice benches are ordered to use the principle of totality.  In effect the most serious offence is the one on which punishment is based and other offences are treated as "aggravating".  The logic of this approach has always defeated me when one offence does not follow from another; i.e. the offences are quite dissimilar.  Using a mobile phone when driving and having no insurance compounded by not having a suitable driving license or MOT fall into this category.  

Today the Scunthorpe Telegraph reported the following case from North Lincolnshire Magistrates` Court:- " SIMONAS MILIAUSKAS , 26, of Frodingham Road, Scunthorpe, pleaded guilty to driving while using a hand-held mobile phone, using a vehicle without insurance and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence. He was fined a total of £400, ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £40, costs of £85 and his driving record was endorsed with six points."

This is as perfect example of the totality principle as could be imagined. It demonstrates IMHO just why sometimes advice from Justices` Clerks is completely out of touch with reality and why they and their political masters are forever seeking approval from media as I posted yesterday on proposals to increase sentences for the most serious driving offences when they well know that in fact time served by those who will be  caught in this new legal net will be similar to the current situation.

 


Monday, 5 December 2016

PROPOSED INCREASE IN SENTENCING FOR DRIVERS



In 2015, 122 people were sentenced for causing death by dangerous driving, with a further 21 convicted of causing death by careless driving while under the influence. Relevant sentences for driving offences  are as below:-


To quote from The Guardian,

"Dangerous drivers who kill are set to face life sentences under plans put forward by ministers. Those causing death by speeding, street racing or while using a mobile phone will face the same sentences as people charged with manslaughter.
Offenders who cause death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs could also be handed life sentences – an increase on the current 14-year upper limit."

I really cannot perceive any basis for this proposed increase in sentencing except to pander to public opinion which IMHO is based upon ignorance and a desire of some newspapers to whip up that opinion.  

Friday, 2 December 2016

HMCTS HAS A NEW CHIEF

In case some readers haven`t noticed Her Majesty`s Courts and Tribunals Service has a new overlord; Susan Acland-Hood.  In recent tweets methinks the lady is trying too hard to ingratiate herself within her domain. I await similar platitudes for my former colleagues who will require more than soft words to persuade them that HMCTS no longer considers them as unpaid employees with all the respect that entails.

Thursday, 1 December 2016

SENIOR JUDGES` PUBLIC COMMENTS

I posted recently on the Lord Chief Justice`s opinion that prison numbers must be reduced by making more use of community sentences.  He is reported as saying he wanted tougher such sentences. What he meant by "tougher" only he knows. I can recollect when the term "community payback" was used and printed on the back of high visibility jackets of offenders sentenced to work in the community.  Anecdotally it became a badge of honour for young villains. How can a probation service totally "transformed" by a previous best forgotten Justice Secretary cope with an increased workload and yet maintain efficiency and competence? 

LCJ has now pronounced on the McKenzie friends issue; a situation brought about directly by the unavailability of legal aid for thousands of defendants in the criminal courts and litigants in the family courts. I last commented on this topic in October. It is generally accepted that at least for the present senior judges should avoid becoming involved in matters political.  But must we always wait until such an individual is retired on his/her substantial pension and feels free to hit the headlines with what might or might not be subject matter long overdue for discussion in the public sphere? Sooner or later especially in the light of controversy over Article 50 judges must be told to shut up or be allowed to comment under agreed strict conditions.  The current noises off when judges skate on political and judicial thin ice are not a healthy way to continue.


Wednesday, 30 November 2016

A TIT FOR THE TOP AT MANCHESTER POLICE

Is there any wonder why police in this country are steadily losing the respect of those whom they purport to serve.  Another senior female officer appears to have had tantrums more befitting a toddler following the example of Maxine de Brunner at the Met. This involved an Assistant Chief Constable allegedly baring her breast to a female Superintendent in a demonstration that breast size is not an important factor in securing promotion. Greater Manchester Police was the constabulary involved. This organisation is quite often in the news for the less than salubrious goings on within its ranks.

When the next scandal at Scotland Yard hits the headlines as it surely will perhaps the Home Secretary will take seriously public lack of confidence in policing.

Tuesday, 29 November 2016

MORE ON CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR ORDERS

It`s almost painful to write this after my last post.  CRASBOs are a total waste of everyone`s time and energy.  Nothing can demonstrate more the futility of such a disposal as this case in Huddersfield last week. Such a disposal IMHO does not punish so called criminal activity, does not deter it and does not prevent it. An early recipient of a CRASBO (above pictured) reacted in a predictable manner.  Perhaps somebody more intuitive than I can offer  a positive opinion.  Crime Prosecution Service guidance on criminal behaviour orders is available here. There are no statistics on these orders that I can source but interesting statistics on ASBOs and subsequent breaches can be found here.

Friday, 25 November 2016

MAD HATTER LAW

On June 21st I posted on what I believed was the first ever application for a criminal behaviour order [CRASBO] I wasn`t very enthusiastic at the time and my opinion has not changed.  Just what sense does it make to exclude a scumbag from one borough for five years or five days?  It is beyond belief that our law makers can follow the discredited failings of ASBO legislation with this.  Some might say that the sanction of custody if the CRASBO is broken warrants in itself this disposal. The same sort of thinking informed Drinking Banning Orders. I would opine that either punish the offence per se appropriately or not but do not displace it for another area to repeat the exercise. This is Alice in Wonderland law enacted by the Mad Hatter.