News & Advice

Two reports, one published this week, lay bare the grim conditions that await some prisoners.  An investigation by the Prison Advice and Care Trust found: The majority of families witnessed a significant decline in their loved ones’ mental and physical health during their custodial sentence. They attributed this to numerous and inter-related systemic factors including:… Continue reading Grave Concerns Raised Over Prisoner Care

New laws, in force from 1 October 2023 will make a number of amendments to the regime governing regulated and reportable substances under the Poisons Act 1972.  The purpose of the amendments is to strengthen existing safeguards that are in place to prevent the illicit use of certain explosives, precursors and poisons to cause harm.… Continue reading Control of Explosives Precursors and Poisons

On 28 June 2022, the maximum penalty for causing death by dangerous driving was increased from 14 years imprisonment to life imprisonment. The Sentencing Council is currently considering a revision to its sentencing guideline to reflect this change. Until that work is complete, there is an understandable confusion as to what level of uplift is… Continue reading Death by Dangerous Driving – Sentencing under Review

The issue of modern slavery and legal defences that might be available to those suspected of crime has occupied a great deal of judicial time over the last five years.  The latest case to come before the court, AFU [2023] EWCA Crim 23, resulted in the conviction being quashed, despite guilty pleas having been entered… Continue reading Modern Slavery – A Legal Minefield

New legislation (The Merchant Shipping (Watercraft) Order 2023) is being introduced to crack down on the dangerous misuse of watercraft such as jet skis, with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency being granted more powers to prosecute perpetrators of accidents. The new law will come into force on 31 March 2023, before the busy summer period… Continue reading Crime on the Water

Landfill Tax applies to all waste disposed at a licensed landfill site (unless the waste is classed as exempt). The permit holders for landfill sites (operators) are liable to Landfill Tax in the first instance. If the operator does not have direct involvement with the operation the person who decides what can be disposed of… Continue reading Landfill Tax fraud & Waste Crime

For the first time, prisons beyond the high-security estate will use new, improved machines to check baggage brought in by the thousands of staff and visitors who enter and exit prisons daily. To date, these machines have stopped huge hauls of illegal contraband from getting into prisons, with recent finds including: 99 sheets of ‘spice’… Continue reading 44 More Prisons to Get Enhanced Security Scanners

The Single Justice Procedure (“SJP”) is designed to enable magistrates’ courts to deal with minor offences more efficiently, while still ensuring rigorous, open and fair justice. Whether those aims are in fact met is the subject of some intense debate, with a number of high-profile journalists consistently exposing weaknesses in the system. 535,000 cases were… Continue reading Further Expansion of the Single Justice Procedure

It is standard for people to share a Netflix account (the same is true of other sharing services). In many instances, it is perfectly proper to do so when those persons are all part of the same household. But sharing password access with relatives and friends further afield has always been something widely acknowledged and… Continue reading Will Password Sharing Land You in the Dock?

Aggravated Trespass is an offence under section 68 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. It can only be tried in the magistrates’ court and carries a maximum penalty of three months’ imprisonment. A person commits the offence of aggravated trespass if he trespasses on land in the open air and, in relation… Continue reading Aggravated Trespass