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Charges fail over 'abroad' definition

10th August 1995, Page 21
10th August 1995
Page 21
Page 21, 10th August 1995 — Charges fail over 'abroad' definition
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• Allegations that a driver employed by Sam Smith Transport, of Dungannon, had falsified tachograph charts and broken the drivers hours rules were dropped after the prosecution accepted that Wigan magistrates did not have jurisdiction over offences said to have been committed in Scotland.

Robert Hegarty, of Stewarts Terrace, Scotch Street, Portadown, had pleaded not guilty to four offences of making a false entry on a record sheet at Stranraer, and to two offences of exceeding the daily driving limit and to two offences of taking insufficient daily rest.

Defending, John Backhouse referred the court to several cases from the House of Lords, the Court of Appeal and the High Court which pointed out that unless there was clear wording in the Act of Parliament, the English courts did not have jurisdiction over offences committed abroad, especially by foreign nationals.

He argued that the jurisdiction of the courts in England and Wales did not extend to offences committed abroad.

It had been specifically stated that for that purpose Scotland was a separate jurisdiction and therefore, to be treated as a foreign country.

Backhouse said that in a recent case before the Brentwood magistrates, involving another Irish driver accused of drivers' hours and rest offences. the justices had decided that the relevant section of the 1968 Transport Act did not extend beyond England and Wales to cover offences alleged between Germany and Belgium, even when the offences were found by a police officer at Brentwood where the driver concerned was checked.

The Crown Prosecution Service had appealed against that ruling to the High Court but just before the hearing had accepted the defence arguments and withdrew the appeal.

The magistrates ordered Hegarty's defence costs be met out of public funds.


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