BAIL AND SHOPLIFTERS

It was recently brought to my attention that the Bail Act of 1976 has been amended by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

Section 7 of the Act, subsection (5A) clause (d) says:

"A justice of the peace may not remand a person in, or commit a person to, custody if it appears to the justice of the peace that there is no real prospect that the person will be sentenced to a custodial sentence in the proceedings".

OK, so what does that mean in practice?

Let us assume we have before us a prolific shop-lifter, with 86 previous convictions, all of a minor nature.

She or he has pleaded not guilty to the theft of a bottle of wine, value £6.75 from Tesco.

The proceedings must now be adjourned for trial at a later date, and the question of bail must therefore be addressed.

It is highly unlikely that the accused, if convicted, will be sent to prison, such a small-value theft would likely result in either a fine or a low-level Community Order.

Prior to the Bail Act being amended bail could have been refused, and the accused kept in prison until his or her trial on the grounds that:

"The court , based on your record of past offending, has substantial grounds to believe that if released on bail you would,  as you have in the past, commit further offences, bail is therefore refused and you will be kept in prison until the date of your trial".

This is now impossible, and unless the accused has tested positive for Class A drugs, and the offence is drug related, the accused must be released un-conditionally and be free to go on committing further offences.

In all probability the accused will continue such small-scale shop-lifting, racking up offences quicker than the court can process them.

I don't know who or why someone thought that this was a good idea, it is nothing less than a get-out-of-jail-free card to the prolific shop-lifter.

Theft from shops has now reached epidemic proportions.

In 2022/23, retailers reported 16.7 million incidents of customer theft, costing them £1.79 billion, that's £1,790,000,000!

A significant increase from the previous year and which these restrictions on the court's powers will only exacerbate.