CRIMINAL DIVISION
ON APPEAL FROM THE CROWN COURT AT WOOLWICH
(MR RECORDER SMITH) [T20230256]
[2025] EWCA Crim 297
Strand, London WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
MR JUSTICE ANDREW BAKER
MRS JUSTICE YIP DBE
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REX | ||
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YASHAR LEON CANATAR |
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Tel No: 020 7404 1400; Email: rcj@epiqglobal.co.uk
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
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Crown Copyright ©
LORD JUSTICE LEWIS:
Introduction
The Background
(1) Possession of a Class A drug (cocaine);
(2) Possession of a Class B drug (cannabis);
(3) Possession of a Class A drug (crack cocaine); and
(4) Dangerous driving.
"(1) Every holder of a judicial office specified in subsection (2) has the powers of a justice of the peace who is a District Judge (Magistrates' Courts) in relation to —
(a) criminal causes and matters.
(2) The offices are —
…
(c) Circuit judge;
(d) deputy Circuit judge;
(e) recorder.
…"
"17A Initial procedure: accused to indicate intention as to plea.
(1) This section shall have effect where a person who has attained the age of 18 years appears or is brought before a magistrates' court on an information charging him with an offence triable either way.
(2) Everything that the court is required to do under the following provisions of this section must be done with the accused present in court.
(3) The court shall cause the charge to be written down, if this has not already been done, and to be read to the accused.
(4) The court shall then explain to the accused in ordinary language that he may indicate whether (if the offence were to proceed to trial) he would plead guilty or not guilty, and that if he indicates that he would plead guilty —
(a) the court must proceed as mentioned in subsection (6) below; and
(b) he may … be committed for sentence to the Crown Court under section 14 … of the Sentencing Code …
(5) The court shall then ask the accused whether (if the offence were to proceed to trial) he would plead guilty or not guilty.
(6) If the accused indicates that he would plead guilty the court shall proceed as if —
(a) the proceedings constituted from the beginning the summary trial of the information; and
(b) section 9(1) above was complied with and he pleaded guilty under it.
(7) If the accused indicates that he would plead not guilty section 18(1) below shall apply.
(8) If the accused in fact fails to indicate how he would plead, for the purposes of this section and section 18(1) below he shall be taken to indicate that he would plead not guilty."
"I am going to sit as a District Judge, which means that I have the powers of the Magistrates' Court, and I am going to vacate your plea, Mr Canatar, in relation to possession of cocaine."
The Appeal against Conviction
Discussion
"We must bear in mind the well-established principle of our criminal law that a series of charges shall not be preferred, and, whether a party accused of a minor offence is acquitted or convicted he shall not be charged again on the same set of facts."
"21. The authorities do not consider in detail what is meant by the same or substantially the same facts but, in our view, as Lord Pearce makes clear in the passage already quoted, they essentially mean that the Crown should not be permitted, save in special or exceptional circumstances, to bring a second set of proceedings arising out of the same incident as the first set of proceedings after the first set of proceedings has been concluded. The principle (which is in essence that identified in the civil law by Wigram CJ in Henderson v Henderson) is that the Crown should decide at the outset, or at the latest before the conclusion of the first set of proceedings, what charges it wishes to bring arising out of the same incident. Any other approach is unfairly oppressive to a defendant. It is for that reason that the burden is on the Crown to identify special or exceptional circumstances to justify such a course. Once the Crown has identified the charges it wishes to bring, it is a matter of case management how those charges are tried. Thus it is a matter of case management where and when the trial or trials should take place."
The Appeal against Sentence
MRS JUSTICE YIP: