Police fail to appear at Magistrates Court

[tommos43]

Friend of mine has been charged with driving whilst on his mobile.

He has plead not guilty as he wasn't on his phone even though 2 police officers say he was.

Court case was this Wednesday at a court 35 miles away (in the area of the alleged offence).

Turned up and was told the police hadn't but that they had a weeks window to turn up and provide the prosecution evidence.

They also told him if they don't turn up within the week the case will have to be heard in July!

Court twice asked him to plead guilty which he refused to do.

Anyone heard of this or has it happened to you?

[ray156]

see it time and time again,police dont turn up at court,not a problem,given a window of time to turn up,you dont turn up at court,you are out the window with a warrant up your butt,driving with a phone in hand,not in control of vehicle,police driving with one hand on wheel the other pressing radio on shoulder,in control of vehicle,mmmmmmm the law is the law,look at the guy stuck in traffic out of gear handbrake on,in ayr scotland,blew his nose with hanky,charged with not being in control of his vehicle,

[smirnoff_rules]

its good news for your m8 .. they might well drop the case , the cps work out the cost of the case and its not 100% clear they will stop it .. only time will tell now

[cgscott]

Reckon it will get dropped. A court date is a court date. Paperwork shouldve been provided as proof on the date given. As for being told to plead guilty thats shocking.

A decent solicitor wouldve got the case dropped that day for insufficiant evidence. No need to go back to court twice unless not guilty plea was made in first instance. Probably find he will end up with a more severe fine and points now.

[Meat-Head]

well would the argument have been, if he was guilty, the fuzz would have been there to have it, but as they wasn't he's not.

Also, had the court said " One fuzz is unable to attend, as he is bidding on something on ebay, the other fuzz has booked the day off because there's a film on bbc1, that he wants to watch"

then fair enough.

[tommos43]

A solicitor would have helped today I am sure but my mate is trying to reduce his costs as much as possible.

He realises a guilty plea would have been much simpler and less costly but is really cheesed off that he should plead guilty when innocent to save money!

[Meat-Head]

can he not go to the pigs complaints commision?

[super jumbe]

Most of time police do not turn up in court first time because they expect the defendant to plead guilty and done with it.

Police will turn up in the next hearing and who would the judge believe in court the defendant or the police that?s what you have to remember in mind?..

Take it from my experience chances for you waking away without getting done are slim mate, the whole court system is a shamble if you ask me??

I wish you all the luck mate.

[jordigirl]

well i would say the only way he could prove his innocence is to get the call log of his mobile provider, and check with the date and time of actual offence as that should also be logged, if there is no record how can they prove different

[TheCoder]

well i would say the only way he could prove his innocence is to get the call log of his mobile provider, and check with the date and time of actual offence as that should also be logged, if there is no record how can they prove different

Unfortunately, not that simple as people often have multiple phones. Proving that one particular phone wasn't used doesn't really prove that none were.

End of the day it will come down to who the judge believes, which is likely to be the Police officer.

[Snowy79]

You need to find out exactly what the charge is he is accused off. It won't be using his mobile. There's various offenses you can get done for when using your mobile. Driving with undue care and attention, wreckless driving, failure to be in control of a motor vehicle, interacting on a mobile device whilst driving etc. Depending on what he is charged with will determine whether he has a chance.

For example if you were using the voice memo on his phone to record a memo he can't get done for interacting or as the public think of as using your phone. The Police will have to prove you were interacting with someone. If they can't prove it you will get off. Just seeing you holding the phone and talking doesn't mean you were talking to another person. It's a loophole that was used to get Jimmy Carr off a driving offense.

[super jumbe]

Snowy79 I know a friend of mine got done by just holding a phone while diving?.

[chopps]

Snowy79 I know a friend of mine got done by just holding a phone while diving?.

You'd think a wet, broken phone would be punishment enough.

[tommos43]

My question here is not as to whether he can find evidence to plead not guilty etc as he is already doing this.

Question is if the police fail to appear can the courts realistically expect my mate to reappear again bearing in mind he has already made a 70 mile round trip and taken a days leave!

[Meat-Head]

help the enviroment, don't they use video link?