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Law - Crown Prosecution Service

Around 1,800 defendants a year in London charged with serious offences including robbery and supplying heroin are set free by magistrates because the Crown Prosecution Service is not ready to go ahead with their committals on time. The disclosure comes in a report from the CPS's independent inspectorate, which concludes: "It is of major concern for the criminal justice system and victims in particular that cases are not being prosecuted to a proper conclusion." Cases can be reinstated but few are, the report says. Defendants over a three-month period had been charged with crimes including assault, robbery, burglary, supply and possession of hard drugs, theft and handling, indecent assault, blackmail and deception.

The inspectors found "disturbing levels of attrition of serious cases which were occurring through committals being discharged when they are not ready, and cases being dropped because of witnesses not attending court". In other parts of the country very few committals were discharged. Stephen Wooler, the chief inspector, said a plan of action "must address concerns about the handling of casework, in particular the lack of grip on cases and the high number which fail simply because the prosecution is not ready". The inspection of CPS London found "serious shortcomings in casework which were founded on weaknesses both in procedures and systems and in management".

Many issues could only be addressed by "a substantial development and strengthening of both senior and middle management, accompanied by some structural changes". The inspectors said that correspondence or material sent by police was not linked to files, and little was done to chase outstanding material, such as committal files from police. In some instances there were insufficient lawyers to send to police stations to review files, or cover courts in which new cases appeared. In many cases inspectors found the police were at fault for failing to supply a committal file or supplying it too late, or submitting a file lacking crucial evidence.

The inspectors say the numbers of discharged cases are thought to be increasing. At the time of the inspection earlier this year, CPS London was "in something of a crisis". More than 50 lawyers had left and staff had to be seconded from across the country. A large part of the advocacy in magistrates courts was being done by inexperienced barristers and solicitors in private practice. The situation was exacerbated because the area thought it had overspent its budget when it was underspent by £1m.

Kris Venkatasami, the national convenor for the CPS section of the FDA, the senior civil servants' union, said: "It was chaos, absolute crisis at the time. These are issues we've been highlighting for the last 18 months. We believe there should be a major investigation into how the area mishandled its budget. My members are doing their professional job but they're struggling because of appalling managerial error." A CPS spokeswoman said: "We accept the recommendations, which highlight some serious problems, though the inspectors do acknowledge the hard work of staff and good prosecution decisions. We will be producing a comprehensive action plan by January."

Steve Lord, owner of Hill Shop and Videos in Stroud, fitted 12 CCTV cameras after losing £30,000 of goods. He caught 300 thieves but only nine were convicted. Despite giving police pictures of shoplifters, Mr Lord says the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is reluctant to pursue cases. A CPS spokeswoman said she could not comment on individual cases but added, "Where there is evidence we prosecute."

Mr Lord said, "Unfortunately the CPS deem it, in many cases, to not be in the public interest to prosecute these people. We upgraded the system to such a standard that we take photo-quality digital pictures and we hand this over to the police whenever we have got a case." Gloucestershire Police say they have records of 60 incidents at the store over the past four years.

A police statement said, "We have received a number of complaints from this store in the past four years. Where evidence exists that a theft has taken place, and the offender is identifiable, we will always seek to make an arrest. However, the final decision to prosecute ultimately rests with the Crown Prosecution Service."


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