Low-value shoplifting inhabits a procedurally unique and potentially ambiguous position in our criminal justice system

Pursuant to section 176 of the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, which inserts s.22A into the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980 ['MCA'], low-value shoplifting is 'triable only summarily'.

Despite this, a defendant charged with low-value shoplifting can, by the same section, elect to be tried on indictment. The Act is silent on how this paradoxical piece of legislative drafting might work in practice, leaving the matter of interpretation to the courts.

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Gary Monks, Ruth Broadbent