Divisional Court Cases
| DOI | 10.1177/002201836202600303 |
| Published date | 01 July 1962 |
| Date | 01 July 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Divisional Court Cases
POWER OF MAGISTRATES' COURT TO DISQUALIFY DRIVER
COM-
MITTED FOR SENTENCE
R. v. Surrey Quarter Sessions: ex parte
Commissioner
of
Metropolitan Police
IT may be remembered
that
in R. v. Dangerfield (1960,
1.W.L.R. 268; 23 J.C.L. 272) the Court of Criminal Appeal
held
that
where aperson convicted by a magistrates' court is
committed to quarter sessions for inquiry as to his suitability
for Borstal training (the jurisdiction conferred by s.
20
(5) of
the
Criminal Justice Act 1948) if quarter sessions imposes a
sentence of Borstal training that court cannot also disqualify
the
offender from holding adriving licence. In
the
present case
(1962,
All
E.R. 825) two youths pleaded guilty at Wallington
magistrates' court to taking and driving away a motor vehicle
without
the
owner's consent and to using
the
vehicle without
there being in force a policy of insurance in relation to
the
vehicle. In respect of both of these offences there is a dis-
cretion to disqualify
the
offender: see Road Traffic Act 1960,
Sch. I
I,
and in the exercise of this discretion
the
magistrates
disqualified both defendants from holding adriving licence
for 4 years and at the same time committed
them
to
the
Appeal Committee of Surrey Quarter Sessions for considera-
tion of their suitability for Borstal training. On the case
coming before
them
the
Committee held
that
in imposing an
order of disqualification
the
magistrates had passed sentence
on
the
defendants and had therefore exhausted their juris-
diction. Consequently
the
committal was made without
jurisdiction.
The
effect of this decision if correct was
that
where aperson was sentenced to Borstal training neither
the
magistrates' court nor quarter sessions could impose any dis-
qualification on
the
person undergoing suchtrainingfrom hold-
ing a driving licence.
Not
unnaturally
the
police desired to
test
the
correctness of
the
decision of quarter sessions and
accordingly
the
Commissioner applied to
the
High Court for
177
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