A recent case in which a property purchaser was defrauded out of £640,000 has been widely reported in the national media. All conveyancing firms should be acutely aware of the danger of criminals intercepting emails between them and their clients and should take steps to minimise the risk of fraud. Such is the seriousness of …
Continue reading “Scam warning – flyer”
D appealed against conviction for several child sex offences against the complainant who he had communicated with, groomed and engaged in sexual activity. He was sentenced to a total of six-and-a-half years in prison. At the time of the offences, D was 26 and the complainant was 14. The main issue at trial was whether …
Continue reading “Child sex offences – belief as to age”
The sentencing judges had not given too much weight to aggravating factors when imposing a sentence for attempted murder. D was sentenced to 14 years’ detention in a young offender institution with an extension period of three years, for attempted murder. At the time of the offence he was 17 and, according to the prosecution, …
Continue reading “Sentence – aggravating and mitigating factors”
Changes in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill risk undermining confidence in the justice system, says Peter Csemiczky in this article considering proposed changes to pre-charge bail. Pre-charge bail means the individual under investigation is released from police custody, with or without conditions, while officers continue their investigation. Most criminal law practitioners agree, the …
Continue reading “Procedure – pre-charge bail”
Practitioners are sometimes called upon to advise clients in circumstances where a deputy should be discharged. In a recent case, the CoP ruled on whether a property and affairs deputy for a child should be discharged. It was against the backdrop of significant tensions between P’s father and other family members and various successive deputies. …
Continue reading “Deputyship – discharge and replacement”
A care worker who makes practical arrangements for a mentally disordered person to use a sex worker could be committing an offence under s39 SOA 2003. The CoP had earlier ruled that no offence would be committed in those circumstances where the individual has capacity under the MCA 2005 to consent to sexual relations and …
Continue reading “Sexual offences – care workers”
We periodically report on the progress of HMLR’s project to transfer local land charges data from local authorities to HMLR. The objective is to standardise and transfer local land charges register information to one accessible place. Common obligations protected as local land charges include: planning permissions (these form the majority of charges); listed buildings; conservation …
Continue reading “HMLR local land charges – data transfer”
D was entitled to full credit for his guilty pleas. He had been sentenced to a total prison sentence of seven years after pleading guilty to robbery and attempted robbery. D had also asked for numerous other offences to be taken into account. It was argued on appeal that the judge had not given proper …
Continue reading “Sentencing – credit for guilty pleas”
D was sentenced to a community order of 18 months for an offence of harassment causing fear of violence to a trans bisexual woman. D had been homophobic and transphobic towards the victim, who had been his neighbour for around ten years. Following a formal police complaint, D was arrested but then he was released …
Continue reading “Sentencing – harassment”
We reported in our October 2021 edition (p24) on the National Risk Assessment produced by OPBAS. The SRA has just published its first professional supervisor report as required by the money laundering regulations, guidance from OPBAS and the Treasury. The SRA reports that it carried out 85 firm visits and 168 desk-based reviews. The most …