Non-attendance at a Crown Court Appeal and Procedural Unfairness
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00220183231174608 |
| Author | Neil Parpworth |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Case Notes |
Non-attendance at a Crown Court
Appeal and Procedural Unfairness
Lawal v Crown Court at Cambridge
[2023] EWHC 466 (Admin)
Keywords
Crown Court, appeal against conviction, absence of appellant, litigant in person, dismissal of
appeal, reasonableness
The claimant was the driver of one of three vehicles which were involved in a damage only collision . He
was summoned to the Magistrates Court in relation to the offences of driving without due care and atten-
tion (contrary to s.3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988), and failing to stop and failing to report the incident
(contrary to s.170 of the 1988 Act). The claimant’s trial was during the time of the pandemic and, as a
result, it was listed eight times and adjourned before being finally heard. The claimant did not attend the
hearing and was found guilty of the offences in his absence. He was fined, disqualified from driving for
nine months, and ordered to pay costs. A subsequent appeal against conviction was listed at Cambridge
Crown Court sitting at Peterborough. It was called on time on the relevant Monday but the claimant was
not present. The clerk of the court contacted the claimant by telephone and was informed that he was
travelling from London to the court in a car being driven by a friend. The claimant also informed
her that in accordance with a Notice of Hearing form which he had received, he had tried to call the
court the previous Friday but his calls had gone unanswered. The clerk was able to confirm to the
judge that there had been a problem with the telephones at Cambridge that day. She also informed
the judge that the claimant had tried to call the County Court at Peterborough a number of times on
the relevant Monday morning, but had once again failed to get through.
Having been invited by the judge to make a submission, counsel for the prosecution asked that the
appeal be dismissed as he had two witnesses, one of whom was at the court and the other who was attend-
ing by live link from Worcester Crown Court. Counsel drew the judge’s attention to the fact that the
claimant had failed to attend on two previous occasions at the Magistrates Court, including on the day
of his trial. The court (the judge and two magistrates) retired to consider the matter. When it reconvened,
the claimant was still not present. On enquiry from the judge, the clerk indicated that there had been no
further communication from the claimant in the intervening period. She also pointed out, however, that
there was nobody that he could have rung. At the request of the court, the clerk contacted the claimant
again and was informed that he was still some distance from the court building. Following a further short
adjournment, the court reconvened and the judge stated:
“We’re not prepared to adjourn further. It seems to us the appropriate course of action is to dismiss the appeal
and we do so. We make no order as to costs”.
The claimant eventually arrived at the Crown Court nearly 3 hrs after his appeal had been due to be
heard. Subsequently, a legal representative acting on the claimant’s behalf applied to the court to re-open
Case Note
The Journal of Criminal Law
2023, Vol. 87(3) 227–230
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00220183231174608
journals.sagepub.com/home/clj
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