Nobody can provide me with a rational argument as to why people who are
involved in victimless crimes should have to pay a levy to support the crimes of
others."
Quite.
political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Magistrates Are Revolting
I was interested to read THIS story about a magistrate, Alan Williams, resigning over the £15 levy which magistrates are now forced to add to anyone given a court fine, to pay for victims of crime and victim support. No one in the legal profession seems able to justify it. What I find astonishing is that anyone given a custodial sentence doesn't have to pay the levy. What a case of warped priorities. Mr Williams said...
Quite.
Quite.
It's rubbish, of course. But how odd to hear a magistrate talk of victimless crime. There's always a victim, even if it's as nebulous as a community's loss of its sense of security.
ReplyDeleteNo tax without an Act of Parliament. It cannot be legal.
ReplyDeleteWell the people who will have to pay the surcharge are those of us who WILL pay the fine levied. We comply, we register, we are compliant. When the camera goes 'PING' we are traceable, when the letter plops onto the mat we pay up, we don't want our credit rating affected, bailiffs at the door etc. We are scared and worried about the consequences of not doing so. We've jobs to do, families to support, we can't afford the time to go to court, we can't afford lawyers (we won't get legal aid will we) The scum that burgle, rob, drive whilst uninsured and disqualified etc etc don't do any of the above and really don't care. They'll go before a court 7 or 8 times before a custodial is even considered, they'll have cost thousands in lawyers fees, social workers wages, doctors salaries(whilst in police custody for their heroin addiction, their asthma - whilst smoking 60 a day, etc etc.)not to mention every other person involved in the whole poitless and bureacratic joke of a legal system. there's no real point in fining them because even if they could pay it - they won't. I've lost it - can't remember where I was............
ReplyDeleteFrustrated taxpayer 'I've lost it - can't remember where I was............ '
ReplyDeleteNo no, just keep going, you were doing so well!
Oh, and the levy does not support other people's crimes, does it? it supports the victims of other people's crimes. Not the same thing at all. It's still a bad idea, but this magistrate has no powers of analysis. I've only been up in front of one. Never again, I hope (and nope, it wasn't victimless). But why are we judged by such people? I guess they are better than the police, who are stupid AND dishonest - which is a poor combination.
ReplyDeleteMotorists fined in court for speeding will be forced to pay a £15 surcharge to help the victims of domestic violence.
ReplyDeleteBut rapists, murderers and other violent criminals who have earned a jail sentence will escape the penalty.
The £15 levy will be imposed on anyone who faces a fine, including drivers who challenge a speeding ticket in court. The cash will be used to appoint dozens of domestic violence counsellors to help bring alleged cases of abuse to court.So it doesnt actually go to the victims.
Initially, it will apply only to offenders who are fined in court but will eventually be added to all on-the-spot fines - including tickets for speeding and using a mobile phone while driving.
Jailhouselawyer
ReplyDeleteIt was a clause slipped into the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004
Exactly, Iain. And well done Alan Williams for standing up for sanity and fairness.
ReplyDeleteWhat I would like to know, as I sit here in my office at 9.00 PM, still ploughing my way through a mountain of Brown and nulab's irrational and meaningless red tape, is when are we, the people - the ones who pay and keep on paying - going to apply a large levy to the nulab criminals?
What should we levy against Blair and Brown et al for; their endless lies; for eroding our democracy, civil liberties and the accountablity of our government and of our political infrastructure; for wantonly destroying our country, NHS and economy; for damaging most of UK's 4.3 million SMEs; for getting UK massively into debt; and for eroding the quality of life and pensions of hard working people, including SME owners?
I say we remove their tax free free pensions and allow them only as much pension as State pensioners have to scratch a living on.
Right, 5 minute break over, nose back to the red tape grindstone.
Wonder what Brown Blair's doing this evening - swigging whiskey, counting his ill gotten gains and drooling over his dreams of the biggest tax of them all, no doubt.
But it's NOT rational, and was never intended to be rational. It's intended to fill Brown's coffers. That's all.
ReplyDeleteOne of the latest pieces of money raking red tape I've just pulled out of my file...
ReplyDelete"From July 1st England will become smoke free [that's a lie] most public places and work places wll be required to display new signage.
Current signs will not comply with the new legislation and may leave you open to prosecution and fine."
There must then be A5 sized signs at every entrance of every business stating:
"NO SMOKING.
It is against the law to
smoke in these premises"
Some business vehicles wil also have to display similar signs.
How much will this rake in for Gordon - he must have a finger in this pie somewhere. And how much is this new signage going to cost UK businesses?
£1 - 3 billion in total?
More bureacracy gone mad, just to put a phoney gloss of activity on our economy and to rake in a few hundred thousand for Gordon the robber's pension fund.
Auntie Flo'
Rational? Labour government? Please!
ReplyDeleteThese people have slipped so far out of touch with the real world (it's doubtful some where ever in touch with it - Ed) that I truly believe they believe in what they do. It's kind of a modern day divine right of kings.
There's a great song written by Jimmy Webb which goes.
If white is right
And black is beautiful
Lord tell me, when can brown begin.
I know he already has but let's just hope he gets stopped in his tracks.
Just tuned into 18 Doughty Street. That is quite possibly the pinkest shirt I've ever seen ... seriously! Had to turn the brightness down.
ReplyDeleteThis hypothecated tax on fines only applies in England & Wales.
ReplyDeleteTough titty, sassenachs. We rule.
Wasn't there once some move towards victims being able to sue their assailants/thieves for damages etc.? At the time, there was potentially an enforcable way to get some recompense.
ReplyDeleteI daren't ask a lawyer, as they'll bill me for the twenty seconds used on the clock.
Interesting - Tories now weak on crime. So what if shoplifters and those people convicted of speeding offences which do not result in injury or death have to pay? If you can't take it, don't do the crime. Pathetic stuff by apologists here.
ReplyDeleteThey should have added it to restaurant bills or the TV Licence....
ReplyDeleteThe Germans used this trick of an "Administration Charge" with Fines
I agree fully that the levy is wrong. Like much of this wicked adminstration's legislation it is ill thought-out, misdirected and completely bonkers.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is surely not for magistrates (or 'District Judges' as we must now, hilariously, call them) to make the law. That is for Parliament, in its infinite wisdom (!!), to do. Magistrates must administer the law as it stands. If they won't, they have to resign.
What would we say if they refused to enforce parking fines? (Now there's a thought ....)
But fines are pretty arbritary anyway. Don't suppose he would have had a problem if there had been an unexplained £15 flat rate hike across the board? We had our own Magistrate Alan (a Tory?) making "bloody foreigners" comments around the same time as Mercer got his. And he allegedly used to boast at work (for a Council in the North, and he was a lazy slacker by repute) how he had escaped punishment for drunken and dangerous driving (at 10 am in the morning) by pulling the "don't you know who I am" plus "I'm on my way to Sunday School" tricks.
ReplyDeleteBloody magistrates!
magistrates (or 'District Judges' as we must now, hilariously, call them)
ReplyDeleteNot quite. DJs are the old 'stipendiary magistrates' (paid); the 'lay magistrates' remain (unpaid).
What would we say if they refused to enforce parking fines?
I would be amazed. After all, most magistrates' courts couldn't wait to become members of speed camera partnerships and get in on the loot, to hell with the constitution.
Corrupt malfeasance, impropriety, collapse of confidence in the justice system is the name of the game now.
If you would have paid £50, you will now pay £65 - a 30% increase.
ReplyDeleteIf you would have paid £200, you will now pay £215 - a 7.5% increase.
If you would have done 6 months, you will now do 6 months- a 0% increase.
In effect, they have increased the punishment scale for the least serious crimes.
They give a justification for this that is literally unconnected with justice. Quite an innovation for a justification...
I too find this levy impossible to justify but did he really say "victimless crime"? There really is no such thing.
Cocaine possession. Speeding. Failure to pay TV licence. None of these need cause harm to anyone.
scotch mist said...
ReplyDeleteThis hypothecated tax on fines only applies in England & Wales.
Tough titty, sassenachs. We rule.
P*ss off and have another spliff, Gordon, a few more of those and you'll be able to convince yourself that you'll win the next election - but you aint convincing anyone else. Even your fellow Scots don't want you.
Auntie Flo'