R v Lewes Crown Court, ex parte Hill
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 19 October 1990 |
| Date | 19 October 1990 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division |
Queen's Bench Divisional Court
Before Lord Justice Bingham and Mr Justice Waterhouse.
Criminal procedure - discovery of documents - special material
Before making an order, under section 9 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, that special procedure material be produced to the prosecution, the judge had to be satisfied that all other practicable methods of obtaining discovery of the required documents, such as the Bankers' Books Evidence Act 1879, had been exhausted.
Since in such applications, the respondent rarely had any interest in appearing, there was a strong duty on the applicant to ensure that all relevant material, including material adverse to him, was before the court.
The Queen's Bench Divisional Court so held when giving judgment in the application of Michael Hill, a defendant charged with a total of 17 offences of dishonesty, for judicial review of the decision of Judge Gower, QC, at Lewes Crown Court granting the investigating officer an order under section 9 of the 1984 Act giving him access to bank records and correspondence in various bank accounts of the applicant.
Schedule 1 to the 1984 Act provides that one of two sets of access conditions had to be fulfilled before a circuit judge might grant a constable an order giving him access to special procedure material.
Mr Simon Stafford-Michael for the applicant; Mr Lindsay Burn for the prosecution.
LORD JUSTICE BINGHAM said the applicant had argued that the police failed to observe the duty to ensure that all the necessary information was before the judge since the sworn information failed to make clear that opportunities arising from earlier orders made under the 1879 Act had not been fully exploited.
Further, he argued that, given the judge's duty under paragraph 1 of Schedule 1 to be satisfied of specific matters before making an order, the judge had to be given sufficient material to form a reliable judgment so that if he was not given any details of the charges against a defendant he could not be satisfied that there were reasonable grounds for believing that the material was of substantial value under paragraph 2(a)(iii).
The judge could not be satisfied that other methods of obtaining the information...
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