The defendant, MB, was accused of three counts of perverting the course of justice by provided false particulars of the driver on three separate notices of intended prosecution for speeding offences committed in MB’s vehicle between June and August 2017.
In all three cases, MB had named a Romanian man, SP, as being the driver. There was no evidence that that SP had ever entered the UK and letters addressed to SP at the given address were returned as undeliverable. In the case of one of the three speeding offences, photographic evidence disclosed in police interview showed the driver to be MB, using his mobile phone as he drove. In that interview, MB went on to confess to having falsely given SP’s details on the other two speeding offences.
Following the submission of detailed legal argument concerning various breaches of PACE, the confession was excluded as unreliable. MB’s defence in the trial was that in all three instances he had given SP’s details as the driver in good faith.
Following a 5-day trial in Wolverhampton Crown Court, the jury took 33 minutes to acquit MB on all three charges
Ali Bajwa KC was instructed by Hassan Mohammed and Pawan Gill of BH Mohammed Solicitors in Birmingham.
Ali Naseem Bajwa KC