Conspiracies

I had an interesting s.51 hearing in the Magistrates' Court today- a chap charged with conspiracy to conceal criminal property, namely hundreds of thousands of pounds. The police investigation seems to have taken months although, notwithstanding that, the most the Crown could give me today was a charge sheet and case summary. Not that that bothered me particularly as the chap was on bail and thus there was nothing to achieve until the preliminary hearing in the Crown Court which, rather ambitiously, has been listed for next week. I doubt very much whether the Crown's case will be in order by then but we shall wait and see.

On another note, a point of interest arose today which is worthy of a mention. It concerns good old case management in the Magistrates' Court. Whilst I was waiting to get on today, a man pleaded not guilty to an offence of common assault. His advocate was asked by the Magistrates, at the instigation of the Legal Advisor, to agree the interview summary by way of section 10 admission. "I can't do that" said that advocate, "I haven't listened to the tape so don't know if it's accurate." The response from the Bench was truly bizarre- "well your client must know whether or not that was roughly what he said". "Roughly what he said"?! I mean, what is going on here? How negligent would you have to be to agree such an interview summary on the basis that it may 'roughly' reflect what your client said in interview? Police interviews are very important as everyone can appreciate- they are the first opportunity the suspect has to put forward an account if he or she wishes to do so and here we are, at court, being asked to agree a quarter of a page summary which may or may not accurately reflect what was said. For my part, I can say with certainty that I will never ever agree such an interview without first being sure that it is a true representation of what was said. I sincerely hope advocates don't find themselves in situations where they are being pressured into making admissions without first seeing or hearing the evidence. Don't allow yourselves to be bullied!