Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2002] All ER (D) 441 (May)
Court: Administrative Court
Judge:

Elias J
Representation Adam Clements (instructed by the Crown Prosecution Service, Grantham) for the prosecution.
  The defendant did not appear and was not represented.
Judgment Dates: 28 May 2002

Catchwords

Magistrates - Procedure - No case to answer - Defendant charged with dangerous driving - Justices acceding to submission of no case to answer - Justices refusing to consider careless driving as alternative offence on basis that defendant had not been found not guilty of dangerous driving - Whether justices in error - s 27 - s 24(1)(a).

The Case

Dismissal of a charge of dangerous driving by justices acceding to a submission of no case to answer was, by s27 of the in effect, a finding of not guilty for the purposes of s24(1)(a) of the and, in those circumstances, justices ought to consider the alternative offences specified in that latter provision. Accordingly, the justices in the instant case had erred in refusing to consider such alternatives on the basis that such a dismissal did not amount to a finding of not guilty.

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