Un adolescente ottiene una condanna penale per una fattura di £ 1,67 per un regalo di compleanno a sorpresa in un nuovo scandalo giudiziario accelerato
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/teenager-gets-criminal-conviction-over-062152873.html
di OneNormalBloke
20 commenti
A teenager has been handed a criminal conviction over £1.67 of unpaid car tax on a surprise birthday gift, for an offence committed before she had even received the vehicle.
The 18-year-old was prosecuted by the DVLA over the bill on her new Toyota, in the latest case of harsh justice to emerge from the Single Justice Procedure.
In a letter to the court, she explained the car was bought as a surprise 18th birthday gift from her parents, and she was entirely unaware of it when it was untaxed for a few weeks in April and early May.
She set out how her parents were waiting to see if she passed her driving test before paying the annual £20 road tax fee.
“As I was not the driver at the time of the offence and not aware that I owned the vehicle, I kindly ask that you review this offence”, the teenager wrote in her letter.
But despite the circumstances, magistrate Francine Beckett, sitting in Burnley, decided to impose a criminal conviction on the teen.
She received a six-month conditional discharge from the court, and was also ordered to settle the £1.67 bill.
It was nearly two years ago that The Standard first exposed deep flaws in the Single Justice Procedure, a fast-track courts system which sits behind closed doors.
Prosecutors like the DVLA do not routinely see mitigation letters, so miss the chance to withdraw cases which turn out not to be in the public interest.
Data also shows that magistrates rarely refer cases back to prosecutors for a public interest check – even when there is compelling and often heartbreaking information in the mitigation letter – contributing to the system being nicknamed “conveyor belt justice”.
Kind reminder that magistrates are unpaid and wholly untrained in law (they are provided 10 days of training) but have the power to sentence people up to 6 months in prison (not for SJP though). You could be sentenced by your loony retired neighbour who cannot even figure out bin days.
I’d be mad at my parents if they cheaped out on paying the £20. Unless the car is officially SORN the tax is due. It’s £20, just pay it!!
Is this really the best use of time for the court? God help us.
That magistrate is a jobsworth. Sorry, but in what world does £1.67 need all of that, just let the girl pay that £1.67 and move on. No bloody need for the discharge, which is absurd. It’s just a waste of time & court resources. Shame on the DVLA & Magistrate here.
So let’s remove trial by Jury for loads more offences. What could possibly go wrong?
Can she appeal this sort of thing? I know it could be expensive but having a criminal conviction could affect your future ability to get jobs. There are numerous professions where she could be excluded: Law, teaching, child care, health.
So… I could buy a car (cheap) in the name of my enemy, then leave it somewhere untaxed and they end up with a criminal record and fine?
🤔
It sounds like she pled guilty and asked the court for leniency given the circumstances. In that case, a discharge is literally the lowest punishment the court can legally impose – they can’t not convict because of the guilty plea, so a criminal conviction was inevitable.
Yeah the rail fare thing happened to me. Ticket machine was broken, travelled to my destination and told the staff at the station i didn’t have a ticket and wanted to pay.
They took me to court and fined me £500, now I just jump the barrier like everyone else
I thought a decision to charge was only agreed on if it was deemed in the public’s best interest? Maybe they forgot to ask that vital question in this case.
Reminds me of the scene in Andor season 1 with the entirely bored and uninterested Imperial Judge handing out harsh sentences in a few seconds before going on to the next case.
The Single Justice Procedure is a huge problem. It’s a conveyer belt system based on paperwork alone and widely deployed in Covid to deal with lockdown infringements. There have been some very perverse outcomes, this is one of many that do not serve justice.
They say we can’t get the criminals off the streets because the courts are clogged up and then they waste time on nonsense like this.
How did this even get to court? What a waste of taxpayer money.
You would not believe the level of pettiness that would follow from me if I was that child’s father, I’m assuming they have records of the named individual who passed this sentence? Better believe I’d be anonymously making that persons life a living hell.
So I googled to find out what a conditional discharge is and got this:
A six-month conditional discharge from the court means that no immediate punishment is imposed, but you must not commit any further offenses during that six-month period. If you stay out of trouble, the case is closed with no further action for the original offense
So it sounds bad, but actually nothing happened to this person other than having to pay the £1.67? Maybe I’m misunderstanding it but that sounds fine to me.
All prosecution powers need to be stripped from any public body other than the CPS, the public interest test is meant to stop prosecutions such as these. Its clear where the error lies.
Fun new prank. Buy a crap car, give it to someone a day before tax is due. Don’t tell them 🙂
Example 71526482615384 of why this country is fucked now
Surely this does not meet even the first criteria for prosecution, being in the public interest. I can see this disappearing once the relevant individuals see how this exposes them legally in the future.