In the dock

The number of cases being taken to Bradford Crown Court has plummeted, while cautions and fixed penalty notices in West Yorkshire have soared. Local barristers and solicitors say they are amazed at the number of clients walking out of police stations without being charged with serious offences, such as violence and sexual assault.

And police officers fear the public are not being protected by the criminal justice system because offenders are being freed to commit further crimes when they should be in prison.

They believe an increasing number of cases are either not being prosecuted, or offenders are charged with less serious offences, such as possessing rather than supplying when caught with substantial amounts of drugs.

West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Tom McGhie claims the criminal justice system is in danger of collapse.

He said: "People are out there committing further offences who should be in prison. There is a failure to protect the public."

But police chiefs insist West Yorkshire has higher than average rates for serious crimes going to the crown court and less fixed penalty notices are issued in Bradford than the average.

And Crown prosecutors rejected allegations that performance targets played any part in deciding whether to prosecute cases and insisted they accepted more cases brought by police in West Yorkshire than most other areas.

Top Leeds-based barrister Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, Leader of the North Eastern Circuit, writing in the latest edition of the Solicitors Journal magazine, said it was "undeniable" that cases were being diverted from the criminal court process as part of the Government's target of bringing 1.25 million offenders to justice in 2007 and 2008.

He declared: "While in some instances that might be a laudable intention, worryingly, in West Yorkshire, the issuing of cautions and penalty notices for disorder does not seem to be limited to the less serious case. A caution counts towards the Government's target, so what is the point of pursuing a case through the criminal courts?"

Mr Bourne-Arton said that a study, published in May last year, identifying the most dangerous cities in England and Wales, had Bradford fourth on the list with 100 crimes per 1,000 people. Leeds was second.

But cases received by Bradford Crown Court fell from 1,593 in 2004 to 1,181 in 2006.

Meanwhile, the number of cautions issued in West Yorkshire for offences of violence against the person rose from 2,493 in 2003 to 6,038 in 2005. In the same period cautions for sexual offences went up from 31 to 85. Cautions for robbery, burglary, theft, fraud, criminal damage and drugs offences are also on the increase.

Mr Bourne-Arton said: "It is no coincidence that the dramatic reduction in work (at crown court) coincides with a significant increase in the number of cautions and penalty notices for disorder being issued.

"Duty solicitors who have spent their weekends representing defendants at police stations recount horror stories of decisions being made not to prosecute serious cases through the courts on a weekly basis."

They include a man from Bradford, with previous convictions for violence, who was offered a caution for fracturing the legs of a baby when he lost his temper, and a wounding case, in which a man lost an eye when he was attacked by four men in a pub in Keighley, which was dismissed when the Crown Prosecution Service offered no evidence, despite the victim picking out two of the men at identification parades.

Other instances included a man, involved in a hit and run accident, who was given a fixed penalty notice for wasting police time after fabricating a story that his car had been stolen in a burglary; and a man charged with simple possession after he was found with amphetamines with a street value of £6,000 despite having no apparent income.

In a similar case in Bradford, a man found with more than 60 wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, with a street value of £900, was charged by the CPS with possession when he said it was for his personal use.

Mr Bourne-Arton said: "Police morale is low. Members of the public and victims of crime are bound to lose all confidence in a policy that appears to let violent and serious offenders off the hook."

Speaking exclusively to the Telegraph & Argus, Mr Bourne-Arton said West Yorkshire was one of the highest areas for the issuing of cautions and fixed penalty tickets.

He said: "Home Office guidelines as to when they should be given are quite clear.

"From what I have been told by solicitors - and I have no reason to believe they are wrong - fixed penalties are being handed out for everything. It seems to me that fixed penalties are being given in breach of the Home Office guidelines, and given in cases where there has been significant injury to victims and significant street disorder.

"Solicitors' clients, who they would expect to be charged, are not being charged. There is a dramatic fall in crown court cases.

"They will say crime has gone down - I don't buy into that. I don't think the figures for the reduction in crime is commensurate with the fall in the work in the crown court."

Mr Bourne-Arton said fixed penalties did not attract a conviction and were not recorded. "If that person goes on to commit a more serious offence, the details of the fixed penalty offence may not be used in a subsequent hearing. Judges could be sentencing someone without knowing the full details of what they have done in the past."

He described as "perturbing" a recent case, told to him by a West Yorkshire solicitor, of a man caught on CCTV kicking someone in the head. But when an off duty police officer, who witnessed the incident, walked into a police station to make a statement, the man who had been arrested was walking out with a fixed penalty ticket.

A defence lawyer, who regularly works at Bradford Crown Court, said there had been a marked downturn in work there, while court lists at cities like Hull, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester, were full.

"We know, from speaking to people working at police stations, it is caused by decisions not to charge, where previously cases were charged," the lawyer said.

"The reality is it's a lot easier to get someone to admit to an offence if they are going to be cautioned. A caution now counts as bringing someone to justice. However, whether a victim would think that person has been brought to justice is open to conjecture.

"Offences of violence inside and outside pubs, that habitually would have been charged as assault or affray, are being diverted from prosecution. Violence is an offence that triggers quite serious consequences for people if convicted. People who might otherwise be categorised as dangerous are avoiding it."

The lawyer added: "I have got my job to do. It is now made an awful lot easier for me. When you are trying to do your job for your client you can get some fantastic results. But you wonder what sort of cases are being prosecuted."

A Bradford solicitor agreed that the number of people being charged in the last 18 months had dropped dramatically.

He said: "We have been involved with suspects who have been dealt with by way of fixed penalties which has seemed to be a very lenient way of concluding a case.

"I can think of several instances where a case has been concluded with a fixed penalty for a minor public order offence when they would almost certainly have been charged with a serious public order offence which could have ended up at the crown court when fixed penalties were not available.

"The major contributory factor is this Government's insistence on statistics.

"I also have concerns about cases which end up with the person not being charged, cautioned or given a fixed penalty. These are for all and sundry offences from fairly simple thefts to sexual assaults.

"It concerns me that I come out of a police station feeling I have done my job as a solicitor, but as a member of the public I wonder how justice has been served. There have been instances when I have represented a suspect who has not been charged and thought had they been charged they would have been facing an uphill battle to overcome the evidence that had been presented in interview."