Be Smart or be fined!

Be alert out there! Over 30 councils are using Smart cars with CCTV mast cameras and thus raising fines totalling over £8m. They are mainly parked near junctions and attempt to catch errant motorists using bus lanes or driving without due care and attention.
In the year which ended in March 2010, one hundred and eighty eight thousand motorists were caught this way. Revenue raising and the Big Brother culture?

Football violence

This firm has a long history of representing individuals and groups charged with football violence and similar matters. Our Mr Parker has attended police stations on these cases as far afield as Doncaster to Hereford. Indeed, he once represented ten fans from a lower division team who got arrested under the Public Order Act 1986 and after a lengthy Crown Court trial, 8 of the 10 defendants (who all stayed as our clients) were found not guilty.

We have experience of dealing with Banning Orders under Section 14(a) of the Football Spectators Act 1989 and we have had many calls to represent clients during the current World Cup. Most of these were under the Offences Against the Person Act 1961, Criminal Justice Act 1988 or Public Order Act 1986. Interestingly, most involved copious amounts of alcohol, which generally speaking is no defence in English law, as it leads to a self-induced state.

We have also used our facial mapping experts in group public order violence matters.

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Old Bailey Success

We recently acted for a client at the Old Bailey and we successfully argued that the police had breached the Codes of Practice by not correctly recording evidence and, in fairness, putting significant items to the suspect during his crucial recorded interview at the police station. Our client was found Not Guilty.

The magistrates/youth court can no longer grant bail to a defendant charged with murder. However, this does not apply to attempted murder and bail may still be granted in the crown court.

On a Driving Whilst Disqualified case in Croydon recently, our lawyer successfully contested the prosecution on the basis that the location of the alleged driving was not in law a ’road.’ M23LAW has had many cases in this area of law.

An update on imprisonment:

‘An update on imprisonment:

It costs around £45,000 a year to keep a youth in prison, £17,000 more than a place at Eton.

The Ministry of Justice admit that about 75% of children released from prison will reoffend within a year.

The prison population currently exceeds 85,000 people and the Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has had the courage to face up to reality and suggest that we need to drastically reduce this overcrowding. Even if probably driven by economic necessity, I applaud this sea change in government thinking. Let’s see how it pans out in the next year.’

Motorbikes have 6,000 accidents a day in Britain

‘Motorbikes have 6,000 accidents a day in Britain and in the last month an incredible 10% of bikers have been involved in a crash.

One per cent of traffic is down to bikers but they account for fourteen per cent of road deaths and serious injuries. 472 were killed in 2009.

We at M23LAW recently attended a venue for bikers, in conjunction with the police Safer Roads campaign. Highways Agency Biker Safety Packs were handed out and free advice was given by our Motoring Law team.’