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Police under fire for refusing to help cyclists retrieve stolen bikes
Courtrooms sit empty despite record backlog of cases
Crown courtrooms are standing idle despite record backlogs of cases forcing victims to wait up to six years for justice.
Official data show nearly a third of courtrooms – 158 out of 492 – were not sitting amid shortages of judges, lawyers, court staff and a cap on Government funding.
This is despite a record backlog of 71,000 cases awaiting trial, up from 38,000 before the Covid pandemic, which has been blamed for waits of up to six years for victims of sexual offences and up to five years for crimes such as fraud and burglary.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/courtrooms-sit-empty-despite-record-160000197.html
Crown courtrooms are standing idle despite record backlogs of cases forcing victims to wait up to six years for justice.
Official data show nearly a third of courtrooms – 158 out of 492 – were not sitting amid shortages of judges, lawyers, court staff and a cap on Government funding.
This is despite a record backlog of 71,000 cases awaiting trial, up from 38,000 before the Covid pandemic, which has been blamed for waits of up to six years for victims of sexual offences and up to five years for crimes such as fraud and burglary.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/courtrooms-sit-empty-despite-record-160000197.html
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Hundreds of foreign criminals convicted of murder, rape and child sexual abuse have been allowed into Britain from abroad, police figures show.
The violent foreign offenders are exploiting “weaknesses” in the UK visa system that enable them to enter the country despite post-Brexit rules that allow the Government to ban any overseas criminals jailed for more than a year.
They only have to self-declare that they have not committed any serious crime to secure a visa to enter Britain – and are only exposed if they get into trouble with police once in the UK.
British police officers and law enforcement agencies can then check an arrested foreign suspect’s criminal background through the UK’s ACRO criminal records office which applies for the information from officials in the person’s home country.
Data from ACRO, released under freedom of information (FOI) laws, shows checks with officials in Romania have turned up more than 700 cases in the last three years where a suspect in the UK has a criminal record there for a murder or manslaughter, rape or a child sex offence.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/murderers-rapists-eastern-europe-allowed-132129369.html
Since 2010, 300 Courts have closed and been sold off. I've mentioned this before. But I think it bears repeating.
Let's use where I live. And the Courts local to me. Since I started out in Law. From the closest:-
1. Harwich Magistrates Court. Closed. Sold
2. Clacton County Court. Closed. Sold.
3. Colchester County Court. Closed. Sold.
For people who live in Harwich, the "local" Courts are
A. Colchester Magistrates. 30 minutes away. As opposed to 2 minutes.
B. Chelmsford County Court. 1 hour away. Rather than 30 minutes
C. Bury St Edmunds Employment Tribunal. 1 hour 20 minutes away
That can be recreated around the country.
Why is there a lack of Judges? At the lower level of paid Judges, such as County Court Judges, Employment Judges etc, the main attraction for recruitment was the Final Salary Pension, and the guaranteed hours. Which, even with a pay cut, looked attractive for middle-aged self-employed Barristers. I can only speak for Employment Judges. But removing that Pension, and seeking to effectively create zero hours contracts did not help with recruitment and retention.
But profit is looking only at Court fees, and criminal surcharges and the like. It takes no account (for example) whatsoever in relation to the human costs of keeping innocent men in prison for years awaiting trial, or crimes committed by people out on Bail for months or even years awaiting trial.
Or businesses going bust because they cannot enforce debts at a reasonable speed
Courts are not businesses. They provide a service. Value for Money is essential. "Profit" is not.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/police-under-fire-refusing-help-162856215.html
The next day his gal spots it on Facebook ( It was a very distintive bike ) so she new it was his, ah have a look and ah see there are about 20 bikes photographed from the same garden, all posed the same way but from 4 different Facebook accounts all from the Bathgate area about 50 miles from where we stay.
Ma son says him and a bunch of his mates are heading up to sort it out, ah stops him because it was going to get out of hand.
So ah tell him to go down to the local cop shop which he did who say there is nothing they can do as it's on Facebook, so he argues his point and they phone the Polis in Bathgate who say to come up and they will go round to the address with him.
So ah decide to go up with him, gets to the Cop shop, they're too busy, tells us to go round to the house and ask for it back and inform them later how we got on, tells us the Cop station will be shut but to ring the bell as he will still be on duty, really, ah showed him the picture on the Facebook account it's this Romanian bear standing in a wood with an axe and a rambo knife ( ah did a we bit of research they were all from the same town in Romania and work in the same factory in Bathgate ).
Ah tell ma son to phone them and say he's interested in the bike, get a shot on it and zoom by me ( am parked at the bottom of the road ) and ah will follow him to the Cop shop, so ma son gets a shot on it it, cycles up and down the street goes by the guy gives him the vickies starts givin him verbal.
He cycles by me in the car, ah follow him and ah look in ma mirror and ah can see these nutters chasing us down the street.
We get to the Cop shop tell them we got the bike back and it was my sons and what should we do next, put the bike in your car and head home was the reply.
About a week later gets a call from the Glesga Polis, we could'nt find the bike, advise you to claim your insurance.
That's the Cops for ye.