SENTENCING

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Hit-and-run driver, Gary Hall, who drank 14 pints then mowed down two people walked free from court. Hall was doing handbrake skids when he twice ploughed into a group of people, then hurled abuse at his victims as he sped off. He admitted dangerous driving, having excess alcohol and two assault charges but claimed not to remember the incident.

Judge John Evans called it "lunatic driving", said it was a miracle nobody was killed and said Hall "richly deserved" jail. Astonishingly he let him off with a one-year suspended term, claiming the yob showed remorse and was of good character. He also received a two-year ban and four-month curfew. (Source: Daily Mirror, Jun/06)

Eleven-year-old Chelsea Williams suffered horrific burns when a 13-year-old boy threw boiling water over her in a water pistol fight, but he will not face charges. The boy, who was on the losing team in the water fight, told Chelsea, "I'm going to get some water from the kettle." He let it boil, then put in a tiny amount of cold water before throwing it over her back. She ran screaming in agony to a friend's house. She was put under a cold shower and then rushed to hospital.

Chelsea needed skin grafts during four days in a specialist burns unit in Salisbury, Wilts, and has been told to stay out of the sun for at least a year. But the Crown Prosecution Service has ruled the teenager should be let off with a "final warning". John Revell, Dorset's chief crown prosecutor, said, "Having examined all the evidence we were satisfied he had no idea his actions could cause such harm and absolutely no intention of causing such injuries." (Source: Daily Mirror, May/06)

A mother took her toddler son to court after officials refused to accept they had made a mistake by charging him for speeding. Lawyers, court officials and police fell about laughing when 16-month-old Jay Mack appeared at Glasgow Sheriff Court and tried to climb into the sheriff's chair. His £208 speeding fine was immediately cancelled and court officers have launched an inquiry to discover how the case got so far. It all started when a man caught speeding in Essex in July gave police the false name of Jay Mack. A computer search by court officials turned up only one Jay Mack in the UK, and the little lad from Priesthill near Glasgow, was issued with a £40 speeding fine.

His bewildered mum Mary, 34, phoned the magistrates court in Essex to tell them they had the wrong Jay Mack. But court officials wouldn't believe her, and continued to send letters demanding payment of the fine. Several deadlines for the payment passed, and the fine showballed to £208.33. Jay was then warned he would face arrest if he failed to appear at a fines hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court. Officials first tried to stop Jay from entering the court, as he was wearing reins and was very wobbly on his feet. But the family was ushered inside when they found out he was the one appearing.

Labour councillor Gregory Vincent, who worked as former sports minister Tony Banks’ agent at the last election, spent hours trawling for pictures of young girls being abused. One showed a naked ten-year-old being assaulted as she wore a dog collar and had her hands tied behind her back and fixed to a beam. Vincent built up a library of internet video clips over six months. The victims were as young as eight. But Judge Christopher Hardy decided to go easy on the dad-of-one after hearing he committed his crimes because he was depressed and bored. The judge told him, “This was very unpleasant material but by no means the worst kind the courts see from time to time. The possession of this material is the result, as you put it, of depression and boredom rather than perversion.”

Vincent, who was also a school governor, was given a two-year community rehabilitation order. Southwark Crown Court in London heard he had lost his £24,000-a-year job as adminstrator at the University of London. He had also resigned as a councillor and is no longer a school governor. The court heard he trawled the internet from his office at the university, using the log-on Heebee Jeebee in a bid to disguise his past-time. But he was rumbled by a specialist team of Scotland Yard officers who used sophisticated software to track down paedophiles. When he realised police were on to him, Vincent deleted all his files to cover his tracks but officers were still able to retrieve them.

A blunder by judges allowed Britain's biggest conman to keep £33 million he swindled from vulnerable pensioners. Fraudster John "Goldfinger" Palmer had the money seized after being jailed for eight years for a bogus Tenerife timeshare scam. Palmer's slick salesmen ripped off an estimated 17,000 victims - many of them pensioners who lost their life savings hoping to enjoy their retirement in a holiday home in the sun. After being jailed for eight years at the Old Bailey and losing his cash, Palmer ordered his lawyers to go to the Court of Appeal in July 2002 over a £33,243,812 confiscation order and the cash was given back on the basis that there had been crucial flaws in the procedure followed. Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice, ruled that the court had "misunderstood and misapplied" the law and Palmer's case had been "wrongly decided".

But Palmer will still keep his cash. Appeal judges blocked an attempt by the Director of Public Prosecutions to take the case to the House of Lords - the only court with power to quash the ruling. As a result they cannot overturn the decision to quash the confiscation order - so Palmer will keep the proceeds from the crime. Norman Brennan, a serving police officer and director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said, "Who has got any faith left in the British criminal justice system? Who said crime doesn't pay? It's never paid so well for Palmer. A lot of vulnerable people, who worked hard all their lives lost their life savings and at the end of the day his sentence, eight years, was not that long anyway." Palmer, in Belmarsh Prison, south London, is now the richest category A high security inmate in prison history.

A man won a £200 damages claim against a doctor he says gave him a cold. He filed the claim at Salisbury County Court and was awarded £200 minimum damages when the doctor and Salisbury District Hospital failed to respond in 14 days. However, at a further hearing behind closed doors at Salisbury County Court the claim was dismissed. He was ordered to pay £750 costs plus VAT to the hospital and £50 court costs.