Jason Moore recently appealed against his conviction for perverting the course of justice. He had fitted a Laser Star to his van. This device has the capacity to jam a speed meter and act as a parking sensor. A number of years later, he drove the van and passed some roadside speed monitoring equipment. … Continued
The Sentencing Council is an independent body promoting greater consistency in sentencing while maintaining the independence of the judiciary. The Council is responsible for developing sentencing guidelines for use by the judiciary and criminal justice professionals and also monitors their use. New draft guidelines for the offences of witness intimidation and perverting the course … Continued
A case recently came before the Recorder of London. It was ruled that it was not in the public interest to force a journalist to hand over material that would identify a potential terrorist. The journalist in question was Chris Mullin, and the police applied for an order for him to produce excluded material. … Continued
The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts has published a report on reducing the backlog in criminal courts. The committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the accounts “showing the appropriation of the sums granted by Parliament to meet the public expenditure, and of such other accounts laid before … Continued
A Bill is progressing through Parliament to set up a register of overseas entities and their beneficial owners and require overseas entities who own land to register in certain circumstances. It also makes provisions about unexplained wealth orders and sanctions. The Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill has three main objectives: To prevent and combat … Continued
A government press release has the heading “thousands of new prison places to rehabilitate offenders and cut crime.” It seems odd when most people would not think of a prison sentence as rehabilitation but rather as a punishment or deterrent. The announcement goes on to say that there will be an “unprecedented” refurbishment and … Continued
Supported by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Environment Agency is an executive non-departmental public body. The Agency was established in 1996 “to protect and improve the environment” their responsibilities are: regulating major industry and waste; treatment of contaminated land; water quality and resources; fisheries; inland river, estuary and harbour navigations; and … Continued
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced funding for councils in England to support domestic abuse victims. The funding is to be used to provide safe accommodation spaces, for example refuges and shelters, with provision for vital support services. Such services would include healthcare, social workers and benefits, immigration advice and … Continued
When the Minister responsible for Whitehall efficiency and counter-fraud resigned in January, he mentioned lax oversight of the Bounce Bank Loan Scheme BBLS. Much has also been said in the press about frauds surrounding the scheme and losses from similar schemes being written off but has anyone actually been prosecuted? Last year the Department of … Continued
New regulations come into force on 25th March 2022, called the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No.2) Regulations 2022. These regulations amend the definition of hand-held devices; these are the definitions that will be used to govern the use of mobile phones and devices by drivers. The offence It is an offence for a … Continued
The government has announced the recruitment of more than 500 staff to work in Community Payback. The aim is to be able to enable offenders to serve an extra 3 million hours of payback each year. The announcement isn’t clear on the reasoning behind the recruitment, whether there is a backlog that needs clearing, … Continued
At the time of publishing, Friday 21st January 2021, our client who was arrested in April 2020 for an offence alleged before the lock down in Feb 2020 saw his two day Crown Court trial delayed until October 2022, some thirty months after the incident .This is far from being the worse example of … Continued
