Criminal Defence Solicitor who also loves cycling
Brent
Joined January 2011
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CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Possession of a Bladed Article – Crown Court.
The defence raised substantive issues and there were clear question marks over whether prosecution of this particular matter was in the public interest.
After two years of litigation and more than 14 hours of work, the prosecution offered no evidence on the day of trial.
Criminal legal aid fee: £272.55 (it would have been only £411.31 had the case proceeded to a one-day trial).
A good outcome for the defendant. Extremely poor remuneration – whether the case reaches trial or not – for the professionals who prepare these matters.
The Government now proposes to remove defendants’ right to elect Crown Court trial in cases of this kind. Instead they would face summary trial in the Magistrates’ Court, where the conviction rate is substantially higher.
Whichever way you look at it, justice in England & Wales continues to erode.
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Left: Labour's PM Andy Burnham, "Jackdaw will also allow us to do more to help people with bills"
Right: Labour's Energy Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, "Jackdraw will not have an impact on affordability and bills"
My view:
Two different messages from the same government, just hours apart, like a throwback to the glory days of the Conservatives 🤷♂️
Jackdraw is projected to have an 11 year lifetime generating £2.9 billion in revenue, or £264 million a year in revenue.
One estimate cited in the Wall Street Journal suggests that will translate to an annual profit of £136 million.
Spread across 29 million households, that's £4.69 per home.
Which is 39p a month, to every household.
Fahnbulleh was right, Jackdraw is not going to bring down bills - why did Burnham suggest it would?
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
POST OFFICE SEARCHED HIS HOME FOR £85K
You fight off an armed robber and get an award. Then you get home and strangers are searching your house. They work for the @PostOffice and they are hunting for £85K.
Meet Tom Brown, a postmaster from Stanley in County Durham with 30 years of service. In 2008 he ran the North Kenton branch in Newcastle. A branch audit said £85K was missing, and the Post Office decided he had taken it.
For over a year he rang the Post Office helpline 2 or 3 times a month about missing cash. The helpline told him it would come back by itself. It never did.
The Post Office suspended him the next day and sent a team to search his house. Tom Brown told them a man about to lose everything has no spare £85K lying around, and invited them to look. He was arrested too, then charged with false accounting, which is a posh way of saying fiddling the books.
Picture strangers going through your home for cash you know you never took. Then picture your name splashed across the local papers next to the word stealing.
Tom Brown later told the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry @PostOffInquiry that the shortfalls carried on after the Post Office put its own staff into the branch. He took that as a sign it was not him. Fair guess.
In 2013 the Post Office dropped the case at Newcastle Crown Court and offered no evidence. It took nearly 5 years to notice it had none. The judge told him he would no doubt take it further.
By then he had lost his business and his home and gone bankrupt. Reports put the total loss at around £500K. He ended up in social housing with his son and grandchildren.
Tom Brown died in late 2023, weeks before the @ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office put the whole scandal into every living room. His compensation was still not finalised.
All he asked for in his Inquiry statement was proper compensation and for someone to take accountability.
His MP Kevan Jones told Parliament he never lived to see the compensation he deserved.
That is how the Post Office says thank you.
Sources
@ChronicleLive @ComputerWeekly and others.
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Meanwhile, over at Snaresbrook Crown Court yesterday, a huge chunk of the ceiling suddenly fell down outside court 1, right by the court cafe, and everyone just carried on as normal.... 👩⚖️
#carryonupthecrowncourt
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
@Mellor76 investigates wrongful convictions in the new Crime+Investigation documentary series Convictions Gone Bad, meeting people whose lives have been changed by miscarriages of justice.
The case of APPEAL client Andy Malkinson features in episode 2.
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
There’ll be chat tomorrow about increasing the sentencing powers of Magistrates to TWO years.
This is, in a crowded field, a monumentally awful idea.
But don’t take it from me - here’s what the Justice Committee made of it 👇🏼
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Congratulations to @ZackPolanski for more than tripling the Greens’ vote share in Holborn & St Pancras from 10.4% to around 33%.
Their actual votes more than doubled, from 4,030 to 8,928.
Labour held the seat, but this is a substantial advance for the Greens 👏
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Dutch cyclists take 300 million day trips and 5.85 million overnight trips per year, generating €3.6 billion for the economy and 39,000 full-time jobs. In Europe, cycle tourism accounts for 28% of the bike industry’s total economic and employment impact.
dutchcycling.nl/knowledge/cy…
ALT A series of photos of beautifully designed cycling bridges in the Netherlands.
ALT A series of photos of beautifully designed cycling bridges in the Netherlands.
ALT A series of photos of beautifully designed cycling bridges in the Netherlands.
ALT A series of photos of beautifully designed cycling bridges in the Netherlands.
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
NEWS: The CCRC has referred two men’s convictions to the Crown Court because of the central role of corrupt British Transport Police officer Derek Ridgewell in their cases.
Read more 👉 ccrc.gov.uk/news/first-magis…
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Today’s @thetimes covers the remaining dangers in the Courts and Tribunal Bill: “could curtail jury trials by the back door” and opposition to judge alone jury trials: “no empirical or other evidential basis to support the diminution of jury trials for complex fraud trials.”
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
🗣️ “Improving safety for cyclists means more than painted lanes. It’s about streets that feel safe and welcoming for everyone.”
#GlowRides returns on 22 October to highlight why too many women feel unsafe cycling after dark.
Why these rides matter: cyclinguk.org/ready-steady-g…
ALT A person in a reflective vest and helmet is riding a bicycle adorned with string lights during a nighttime cycling event. The street is lively with other cyclists and lit shops in the background.
ALT A group of people cycling on a wet, cobblestone street, wearing colorful jackets and helmets with lights. The scene is festive and takes place at night near storefronts.
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
“The case should send a shudder down the spine of any driver who used a phone. It should send a stark warning that even a short period of distraction could have fatal consequences”
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6ly…
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Today we celebrate the government recognising that #JusticeNeedsJuries and listening to the expertise and experience of the Bar - but the fight goes on.
We continue to oppose the government's proposal to remove the right to elect and increase magistrates’ sentencing powers.
The magistrates’ courts are not coping with their caseload whilst the Crown Court backlog is stabilising. Putting more pressure on the magistrates’ courts rather than focusing on reforms that actually are working in reducing delays in the Crown Court will not help our criminal justice system.
Read our Chair Kirsty Brimelow KC's full response to yesterday's announcement in this new blog⤵️
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Chair Andrew Thomas KC via. @MENnewsdesk
“A severe threat to our trial by jury remains in the Bill. The proposal to strip defendants of their right to elect a Crown Court trial, combined with doubling Magistrates’ sentencing powers to two years, would shift 25,000 cases a year, including 5,500 jury trials, out of the Crown Court.”
“These are not minor offences. It includes serious and sensitive cases including assaults, sexual assaults, child abuse and GBH. Our volunteer magistrates do an excellent job but they are completely unequipped to try complex, multi-day trials.
“What makes it worse is that it is far more difficult to get Legal Aid in the Magistrates’ Courts, and people facing long sentences of imprisonment will end up representing themselves. The Magistrates’ Courts simply cannot cope.
"Since this proposal was first announced, the Crown Court backlog has stabilised but the backlog of open court case in the Magistrates’ Courts has surged by 16 per cent annually—and up to 40 per cent in some regions. They do not have enough Magistrates, enough qualified legal advisers or enough resources to take on thousands of more sensitive cases. It would be a car crash if they tried to do it, especially at this time.”
manchestereveningnews.co.uk/…
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Statement from CBA Chair Andrew Thomas KC
Please read 🧵
“Yet, a severe threat to our trial by jury remains in the Bill. The proposal to strip defendants of their right to elect a Crown Court trial, combined with doubling Magistrates' sentencing powers to two years, would shift 25,000 cases a year—including 5,500 jury trials—out of the Crown Court.”
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Be under no illusion: this is a significant victory for everyone who stuck their neck out and defended jury trials, day after day, clause by clause.
But it is not a comprehensive victory.
Magistrates should not be allowed to send people to prison for two years.
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
For the love of god
📈Today, 1 October 2026, 100 out of the 532 Crown courtrooms in England & Wales will not be sitting.
That's 19% of them. #courtstats #CS01102026 courtstats.co.uk
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
Magistrates backlog adds to crisis @thetimes
Andrew Thomas KC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said this week that the crown court backlog was “stabilising”, noting that between 2022 and 2025 it rose by 18,000 cases, or 9 per cent year on year. But with that backlog rising by 0.45 per cent in the six months to June, Thomas said the backlog rise had “come under control”.
However, he highlighted that the backlog in the magistrates’ courts was “continuing to grow at a significant rate”, rising by 8,250 cases to an all-time high of 380,230. There has been a more than 50 per cent increase in the magistrates’ courts backlog since 2022.”
thetimes.com/article/6336c0b…
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
What if a police officer is imprisoned, but no one goes back and reviews the cases they worked on?
Our new animation explains the problem, and how Trew’s Law could change that.
appeal.org.uk/trews-law/
CLIVE GOMES retweeted
What happens when the Court of Appeal corrects a miscarriage of justice — but refuses to examine how it happened?
Read @MattFoot2's article in the London Review of Books: lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n17/…
