Cameras Allowed in Court of Appeal

TV cameras have been allowed to record proceedings in one of the highest courts in England and Wales.

Filming is being allowed at the Court of Appeal for the first time, after a partial lifting of the long-standing ban on cameras in court.

Senior judges and major broadcasters welcomed the move, which the head of BBC News said was a "landmark moment".

Cameras are not yet allowed in crown courts and magistrates' courts.

Follow link for the full news item
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24744684

Special Court Orders Cast Doubt on Kevin Lane Conviction

  

 

 

 

Special court orders cast doubt on Kevin Lane murder conviction

  Kevin Lane has spent more than 18 years in prison, but has vowed to clear his name before being released

 

Jamie Doward

The Observer, Sunday 21 July 2013

 

Kevin Lane says he is innocent of the crime for which he was convicted.

Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian

 

Doubts have emerged about the conviction of a contract killer following a trial in which special court orders were used to keep sensitive information out of the public domain.

 

Kevin Lane was convicted in 1996 of the murder in 1994 of Robert Magill, a car dealer from Hertfordshire. Lane's co-accused, Roger Vincent, was acquitted.

 

Lane, who has admitted to having been brought up in the criminal underworld, has protested his innocence since his conviction. Having served more than 18 years for murder, he is now in a category D prison – a sign that he is due for release soon. However, he has vowed to clear his name before his release and has launched a number of unsuccessful appeals that have raised questions about his conviction.

 

During his latest appeal hearing, last week, it was confirmed that many documents relating to Lane's conviction had been withheld from his defence team under public interest immunity certificates. The certificates, which are used to keep information from being disclosed in court, are often applied by judges to protect the identity of informants. But they also made it difficult for Lane to request documents that he believes could be instrumental in clearing his name. And documents that have been shared with Lane's lawyers have been heavily redacted.

 

It has emerged that some of the documents relate to a former police officer involved in the case, Detective Inspector Chris Spackman, who was instrumental in securing Lane's conviction but was jailed in 2003 for corruption relating to a separate case.

 

Prosecution lawyers involved in Lane's case and appeals have always maintained that Spackman's conviction, long after Lane was jailed, had no bearing on his case. However, during last week's hearing, it emerged that the police were aware of allegations that Spackman had been corrupt as far back as 1994, the year of Magill's murder.

 

It also emerged that among documents seized from Spackman's office upon his arrest was a reference to a file or files which were marked "Lane/Vincent". It is unclear why Spackman was in possession of the files.

 

The hearing was told that the commission had not seen or examined the files, and did not know whether the files were still available for examination. The material's existence was disclosed by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service.

 

Lane's barrister, Joel Bennathan QC, told the hearing that the fact that the police had such information but that it had never been made known to Lane's lawyers "ought to be a matter of the greatest concern".

 

It was alleged during the hearing that Spackman held "off the record" meetings with Vincent when he was in custody awaiting his murder trial.

 

Vincent, who was jailed for the murder of drug dealer Dave King in 2003, has always denied any collusion with Spackman, and any involvement in the Magill killing.

 

Spackman has also denied any suggestion of impropriety relating to the Lane conviction. Lane's lawyers will now review the information that has been shared with them.

About this article

Special court orders cast doubt on Kevin Lane murder conviction
This article appeared on p17 of the Main section section of the Observer on Sunday 21 July 2013. It was published on guardian.co.uk at 00.04 BST on Sunday 21 July 2013. It was last modified at 00.06 BST on Sunday 21 July 2013.

Close

CCRC to Receive Increased Funding

Miscarriages of justice body to receive increased funds after applications rise

The 10% increase comes amid cuts to criminal legal aid, leading lawyers to ask whether a better funded CCRC will address the problem of lack of legal representation

         

• Brian Thornton
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 3 July 2013 18.16 BST

The release of the Birmingham Six at the Old Bailey in 1991. The idea of the CCRC was established by the Runciman Commission,set up following numerous high profile cases Photograph: Rex Features

The body responsible for investigating miscarriages of justice is to receive a 10% increase in funding after a surge in applications from prisoners claiming they have been wrongfully convicted.
Last year the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) received 1,625 applications from people asking it to investigate their cases – a 64% increase on previous years.
The CCRC believes the dramatic rise in applications is the result of a change in the way that prisoners can apply to the commission.
Richard Foster, chairman of the commission, said: "This is not about some sudden upsurge in miscarriages of justice. It is about the commission making itself much more accessible to those who may most need its help and allowing people to make applications in ways which best suit them personally."
The new application form – which has been advertised in all prisons — includes pictures and simpler language so that prisoners with even the most basic reading and writing skills can complete it.
Studies have found that more than 50% of prisoners have literacy levels below that expected of 11 year olds.
The Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) promise to give the CCRC nearly half a million pounds extra in funding is particularly noteworthy given the background of swingeing cuts to criminal legal aid.
A MoJ spokeswoman said: "The Criminal Cases Review Commission is an integral part of our justice system.
Over the past year they received a 64% increase in applications so we have granted them a small increase in their budget to deal with the workload and they have allocated more resources to processing applications to reduce delays."
The funding of the CCRC has long been a contentious issue. The body had suffered a funding cut of 30% in real terms over the last seven years, resulting in redundancies at the commission's Birmingham headquarters.
This lead critics of the organisation to claim that it lacked the resources to tackle the volume of cases it had to deal with every year.
The idea of the CCRC was established by the Runciman Commission which was set up following numerous high profile miscarriages of justice such as the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six.
Garry Runciman, chair of the Royal commission, admitted that it was the funding of the CCRC, rather than its structure that had concerned him.
"I hoped that if a new independent authority was set up on our recommendation that the government wouldn't just tick the box and then start cutting back on the funding."
Professor Michael Zander, who was also part of the Runciman Commission, praised the organisation for making itself more accessible: "On the whole I think they've being doing quite well, given their resources. The admirable attempt to make their message better known to prisoners has resulted in them being deluged by even more applications."
"The increased funding is definitely a vote of confidence [in the CCRC] because everything has been going downhill and for anything to get more resources at the moment is remarkable.
"So that's a triumph, or it may be a recognition that they've been shortchanged over quite a long time and it's now got to a point where even this government has to do something about it, which I applaud. They need all the help they can get in terms of resources."
The haemorrhaging of staff has now been halted and the commission is currently recruiting case review managers, commissioners and investigations specialists.
"We will be spending this money on front-line staff.  We aim not just to cope with this huge increase in applications but also to maintain or improve waiting and turnaround times for cases," said Foster.
"We all know the pressure on public finances. Ministers would not have increased our funding if they did not recognise both the work the commission has done to make itself as efficient and effective as it can and the importance of identifying, and remedying, miscarriages of justice whenever and wherever they occur."
For those working with prisoners who are maintaining their innocence – sometimes for decades – in prison, the increased funding is welcome, but concerns over the CCRC's approach remain.
Maslen Merchant, a lawyer who specialises in miscarriage of justice cases, thinks that the CCRC should see this as an opportunity to refocus its approach.
"I think the CCRC sometimes forgets who they're dealing with and also the effect that delays can have. It once took a year for the CCRC to publish a decision it had made on a case. The prisoner – was had served 16 years already — was on suicide watch while he awaited his decision.
"They need to meet the prisoners and the families so that they understand what's at stake. Otherwise it's just another file – just another name," said Merchant.
Solicitor Glyn Maddocks, who worked for more than 12 years to get the conviction of Paul Blackburn quashed, agrees: "If the CCRC uses the money to properly and effectively investigate cases rather than doing desktop reviews as they have being doing in recent years, then I would applaud it," he said.
But a better funded CCRC does not really address the real problem facing the wrongly convicted – namely a lack of legal representation, according to Maddocks.
A shortage of solicitors to take on these difficult and complex cases has turned into a crisis, with most applicants to the CCRC now having no legal representation.
With the MoJ aiming to cut £220m out of criminal legal aid the situation is unlikely to get any better.
Maddocks and other criminal law experts have now created the Centre for Criminal Appeals to try to address the shortfall in legal representation for those who claim to be victims of a miscarriage of justice.

MOSELEY IN BLOOM 2013

Hadgkiss Hughes & Beale are proud to be sponsors of Moseley in Bloom 2013.  This popular event will be taking place over the weekend of 29 & 30 June 2013.
 

Visit http://moseleyinbloom.org.uk/ for further information.

Open Gardens 2013

Saturday 29 June and Sunday 30 June 2013
1.00 pm to 5.30 pm both days

Day Ticket – £5.00 (TBC)
Weekend Ticket – £7.50 (TBC)
Friends of Moseley in Bloom – Free with your membership card

Refreshment points along the route offering traditional afternoon teas and delicious cakes.

“The sheer size of the area is likely to come as quite a revelation to visitors.”

2012

Moseley in Bloom struck gold for the fifth year running in this year’s Heart of England in Bloom competition.  The locally based volunteer group and charity received the top award for its commitment to improving the environment of the village.  It also set an unprecedented record by maintaining its position as winner of the Urban Communities category for the sixth year in succession.

OFT Warns Consumers Over Quick House Sales

18th April 2013

 

Consumers being misled over quick house sales, OFT warns

Quick sale companies offer to sell a house in as little as a week

Consumers who want to sell their houses via so-called "quick sale" companies are in danger of being misled, according to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

 

Quick house sale providers offer to buy houses in as little as seven days, but at a discount to the full market value.

 

The OFT is warning that homeowners may receive much less for their property than it is worth.

 

"Any losses could be very high," it said.

 

In some cases such companies agree to buy a house, but then reduce the price at the very last minute.

 

"Businesses offering quick house sales may provide a useful service for homeowners who need to unlock cash in a hurry," said Cavendish Elithorn of the OFT.

 

"However, they are often used by consumers in vulnerable situations and therefore we are concerned about the risk of consumers being misled and losing out on large sums of money," he said.

 

Consumers identified as particularly at risk include those selling after a relationship breakdown, or the elderly who might need the money to pay for long-term care.

 

 

During an investigation last year, the BBC spoke to two people who were angry at the way they had been treated by quick sale companies.

OFT concerns

• unclear fee structures

• reducing the price at the last minute

• making misleading claims about a property's value

• falsely claiming to be a cash buyer

• exclusive contracts, preventing sales to other buyers

 

Malcolm Haywood, from Lincolnshire, wanted to sell his house quickly, and agreed to a sale price of £120,000.

 

But just before the deal was signed, the company involved, Gateway Homes UK, dropped the price to £80,000.

 

Pat Hardy, from Teesside, signed a similar deal with Tom Craven Property.

 

She had agreed a purchase price of £75,000, but the day before the removal men were due to arrive, they lowered the offer to £40,000.

 

Both companies insisted that the number of complaints amounted to less than 1% of their customers.

 

The OFT said practices which cause concern include unclear fee structures, reducing the price at the last minute, and wrongly claiming to be a cash buyer.

 

It also warned about companies making false property valuations, and tying customers into contracts which prevent them selling to other people, should alternative, and more generous offers emerge.

 

The OFT would now like to hear from anyone who has used a quick sale provider, whether their experience is good or bad.

 

They can be emailed on quickhousesales@oft.gsi.gov.uk

 

Following last year's BBC investigation, the Law Society called for tougher regulation of the industry.

 

 

HADGKISS HUGHES AND BEALE

SOLICITORS

MOVING HOUSE

 

Gordon Keir and Anne Norton have been dealing with legal problems for many years and have over 60 years’ experience between them.

 

We look after you from the time you instruct the firm until you collect your keys and beyond.

 

Gordon and Anne undertake:

·       Sales and Purchases of residential freehold and leasehold property

·        Purchases of freehold interests

·        Extension Leases

·        Auctions

·        Transfers of Equity

·        Investment Properties

·        Repossession Proceedings

·        Re-Mortgaging

·        Matrimonial Property

·        Deeds of Gift

·        Change of Name Deeds

·        Immigration Property Confirmation

HADGKISS HUGHES AND BEALE

83 ALCESTER ROAD, MOSELEY,

BIRMINGHAM B13 8EB

TELEPHONE: 0121 449 5050

 

 

Email enquiries to: AnneNorton@hhb-mo.co.uk

 

www.hadgkisshughesandbeale.co.uk

 

 

 

 

The Demise of Family Legal Aid- What Happens After 1st April 2013?

THE DEMISE OF LEGAL AID FOR FAMILY LAW

What happens after 1^st April 2013?

The Legal Aid(Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders) Act 2012  has received Royal Assent and is now an Act of Parliament implemented into UK legislation. The new reforms are due to take place on 1^st April 2013.

The new provisions create The Legal Aid Agency, which will be an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice and will replace the Legal Services Commission (LSC). There will be changes to the eligibility for, and scope of, legal aid cover.

The new legislation is intended to save £350 million from the Ministry of Justice’s annual legal aid budget and cuts equal to 40% have been announced to the legal aid sector. According to a parliamentary report, the new Act will lead to 500,000 fewer instances of legal help to many individuals and 45,000 fewer instances to legal representation.

The Government cuts to Family Legal Aid will undoubtedly lead to a reduction in legal representation for many people at one of the most vulnerable times in their lives.

According to the Ministry of Justice, legal aid will still be available in criminal and childcare proceedings, some family or civil proceedings and in claims made by victims of domestic violence. However, the claimant will need to show that legal aid is absolutely necessary; for example in cases where a person faces a risk of serious physical harm, their life or liberty is at stake, they face immediate loss of their home or their children may be taken into care.  The new criteria are extremely limited resulting in only a minority of firms retaining and renewing their Legal Aid Franchise to undertake family legal aid work.  The remaining firms are permitted to conclude any ongoing legal aid work beyond 1^st April 2013 but are not permitted to make any new applications after that date. 

The results will inevitably mean longer waiting times for appointments, travelling further afield and if and when an appointment is secured, the few remaining solicitors providing legal aid being too busy to provide a personal and unique service to their clients.

From 1^st April 2013, as a result of these changes, Hadgkiss Hughes & Beale will no longer undertake legal aid for family work.  We are however, able to provide you with a prompt and personal service treating you as an individual in your time of need.  We will provide you with a professional and approachable service with fixed fees, and budgeting measures to ensure that you can still receive and have access to the expert advice and assistance you require. 

Arrange an appointment with one of our Family Experts: Hardip Lall email: hardiplall@hhb-mo.co.uk  or Katie Ward email: katieward@hhb-mo.co.uk or telephone 0121 449 5050.

We offer a free, no obligation, half hour appointment to discuss whatever family issues you have and also to consider the most appropriate cost package available.

 

Kevin Lane Could Face Full Appeal Hearing

Kevin Lane could face full appeal hearing

Prisoner who continues to protest innocence, despite completing tariff, has case referred to full court

• Duncan Campbell
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 March 2013 13.03 GMT

 

Kevin Lane was jailed for life for the 1994 murder of Robert Magill, and given a tariff of eighteen years. As his daily updated website indicates, he has now completed that tariff plus 46 days. However, he has not yet been released because he continues to protest his innocence.

Now Lane has just been told that his case has been "referred to the full court" which means that three judges will finally consider his application for leave to appeal and could, if they find in his favour, move straight to a full appeal hearing, according to his lawyer, Maslen Merchant. There are still public interest immunity issues to be resolved concerning the disclosure of documents relevant to the case before this can go ahead.

Magill was shot dead by a hitman in Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, as he was walking his dog. Two men fled the scene in a BMW car. Lane and another man, Roger Vincent, eventually stood trial. Vincent was cleared but Lane was convicted and jailed. He has been protesting his innocence ever since. Central to his appeal is the conduct of former Detective Inspector Christopher Spackman, who was a key officer in the case and who was subsequently convicted in 2003 at the Old Bailey of conspiracy to steal £160,000 from the police and misconduct in a public office.

In 2011, the court of appeal ordered the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to investigate aspects of the case and report back to them. "What cannot be gainsaid is that Mr Spackman … interfered in the criminal justice system," Lane's barrister, Joel Bannathan QC, told the hearing. According to the CCRC, a response was given to the court last October.

Lane is currently in HMP Wolds in Yorkshire and is hopeful that his case will finally be resolved before another year ticks by on his website.
 

Budget 2013: Osborne offers homebuyers Help to Buy

Help to Buy scheme offers buyers with a 5% deposit an interest-free loan of up to 20% of the value of most new homes

 

• Rupert Jones
• The Guardian, Wednesday 20 March 2013 14.24 GMT

 

Homebuyers can borrow up to 20% of most new-build properties, interest-free, for five years. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

A £3.5bn investment in government loans to financially stretched homebuyers and a £12bn scheme to increase the availability of mortgages to people who cannot afford a large deposit were unveiled by the chancellor "to support a new generation in realising the dream of home ownership".

 

The two measures were the centrepiece of a package of financial support for the housing market, and aim to provide assistance to first-time buyers and those "trapped" in their existing homes and unable to take the next step up the property ladder.

 

In his budget speech, George Osborne launched Help to Buy, which is, in effect, an expansion of two existing initiatives. Under the loans scheme, a buyer hoping to purchase a newly built home will be able to take out a mortgage for just 75% of the cost of the property, provided they can stump up a 5% deposit.

 

Those who qualify will be eligible for an "equity loan" worth up to 20% of the value of the property, funded by the government, which will be interest-free for the first five years.

 

This £3.5bn scheme will run for three years from 1 April and help up to 74,000 buyers, as well as providing a boost to the construction sector, said the Treasury. These figures suggest the government loan will on average be worth just over £47,000, and assume a typical buyer will be putting down a deposit of about £11,800.

 

The loans scheme is an expansion of an existing scheme called First Buy, which went live in 2011, but the new version is open to those looking to move up the housing ladder, as well as first-time buyers. It also has fewer restrictions than First Buy; the maximum property price that will be considered is £600,000 and there is no cap on the maximum amount someone can earn to be eligible.

 

However, buyers need to be aware that after the first five years, an annual fee of 1.75% will be levied on the government loan, and this fee will then rise annually by retail prices index (RPI) inflation plus 1% after that. The government says the equity loan can be repaid at any time, or on the sale of the property.

 

Buyers will be able to access the scheme via participating housebuilders – likely to include most or all of the major names – and "Home Buy agents", those appointed by the government to provide a point of contact for those wishing to access affordable home ownership.

 

The other part of Help to Buy involves the introduction of a new "mortgage guarantee" to enable more people to obtain a home loan without the need for a prohibitively large deposit. The government will make available £12bn of guarantees to lenders, which it said should be enough to support £130bn of high "loan-to-value" (LTV) mortgages. That could translate into around 300,000 mortgages over three years, according to one expert.

 

The LTV is the maximum the mortgage company will lend someone who wants a particular home loan, expressed as a percentage of the value of the property, and the problem has been that most of the lowest interest rates are on mortgages of no more than 60% of the value of the property, with only a smattering of more expensive deals around for people who want to borrow 90% or 95%.

 

This scheme will run for three years from January 2014 and see the government give lenders who offer mortgages to people with a deposit of between 5% and 20% the chance to buy a guarantee on the high LTV portion of the mortgage. That means if a borrower's property were repossessed, the government would cover a chunk of the losses suffered by the lender.

 

This scheme is available to home movers as well as first-time-buyers, and on both newbuild homes and existing properties worth up to £600,000. Buyers will still need to put down a deposit of 5%.

 

However, it remains to be seen how much lenders will have to pay for the guarantees – and how competitive the mortgage deals will be when they become available in January. The Council of Mortgage Lenders warned that if the cost was too high, this could make the scheme uneconomical.

 

Hugh Wade-Jones at the mortgage broker Enness Private Clients welcomed the guarantee scheme. "The UK has been one of the few countries with a developed property market where lending is not controlled or underpinned in some way by the government.

 

"By effectively underwriting loans, the government is putting its money where its mouth is by easing the risk for banks providing higher loan to values to customers. This will have a particular impact on helping first-time buyers, which is the foundation of the entire market."

Case study: the builder

For Mark Suggitt, the owner of a small housebuilding firm on the south coast, the unexpected boost to the property market unveiled in Wednesday's budget represented a much needed fillip for one of the industries that has been hit hardest by the credit crunch and its aftermath.

 

The 49-year-old had hoped for more government assistance for those trying to get a foot on the property ladder, and welcomed yesterday's measures for homebuyers. The multibillion-pound Help-to-Buy scheme includes a mortgage guarantee incentivising lenders to offer home loans to people with small deposits, and a £3.5bn investment in interest-free loans to buyers.

 

Suggitt was upbeat about the guarantee scheme, which he said would help people move up the housing chain. However, he was disappointed that the loans scheme was only for new-build homes. "It's a shame it's just on new properties and not good-quality housing in general," he said. He added: "Big developers will tend to offer selected new homes for this scheme. First-time buyers should use the scheme to buy the best-value-for-money properties on the market."

 

Suggitt described conditions in the housebuilding business as "challenging" and said that since the recession began, his firm, based in Hastings, East Sussex, had been concentrating on building larger, "top-end" properties. These typically go on the market for between £800,000 and £1m.

 

The father-of-three acknowledges that this sort of price tag will be out of reach for many local people, but says there are people moving from London whose housebuying budget in the capital would buy them a house on the south coast double the size of a London purchase.

 

His firm, N L Suggitt & Sons, typically builds two to three properties a year, and usually has up to 12 people on site.

 

Suggitt was pleased to see measures to help small businesses, including the employment allowance, which takes the first £2,000 off the employer national insurance bill of every company in the country. Around 450,000 small businesses – one third of all employers – will pay no employer national insurance at all once the employment allowance is introduced in April next year.

 

 

HADGKISS HUGHES AND BEALE

SOLICITORS

 83 ALCESTER ROAD, MOSELEY,

BIRMINGHAM B13 8EB

 TELEPHONE: 0121 449 5050

 

Email enquiries to: AnneNorton@hhb-mo.co.uk

 

www.hadgkisshughesandbeale.co.uk