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Cyclist who almost lost life “let down” after lawyer’s error sees driver escape dangerous driving prosecution

CTC say judge’s decision not to hear case because it would be unfair on motorist “a farce”

A motorist who was charged with dangerous driving following an incident in which a cyclist almost lost his life has escaped prosecution due to an error by a lawyer. The victim says he feels “let down” by the legal system, while a cycle campaigner says that a judge’s decision not to reinstate proceedings because it would be unfair on the driver is “a farce.”

Mark Schofield, aged 55, was seriously injured in August 2012 while cycling with his son Rhys, 24, at Aston Cross near Tewkesbury when he was dragged under a twin-axle caravan towed by a Range Rover being driven by 62-year-old Phillip Davies from Evesham, reports the Gloucestershire Echo.

Mr Schofield, from Cheltenham, sustained injuries including two punctured lungs and needed treatment at the scene to save his life before being taken to hospital, where he spent two weeks in intensive care.

The motorist was charged with dangerous driving, but when his trial began at Gloucester Crown Court, prosecuting counsel Mark Worsley informed Judge William Hart that he had decided not to pursue the dangerous driving charge.

Instead, he asked that the case be sent to Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court on the less serious charge of careless driving, and while the judge agreed to his request, he added that he was doubtful he had the legal grounds to do so.

But once the case reached the lower court, Distrct Judge Joti Boparai determined there had been a legal error and there had been no authority for the case to be sent to her for trial, meaning it could not be heard in either court since proceedings had been stayed at the Crown Court on the dangerous driving charge.

The Crown Prosecution Service returned to Gloucester Crown Court with a different barrister and asked Judge Hart to remove the stay and reinstate the dangerous driving charge for trial by jury, but he rejected their application, saying it would not be fair on Mr Davies given the time that had elapsed since the incident.

Describing the case as a “misconducted prosecution,” he said: “The Crown simply cannot blow hot and cold as to the appropriate charge and they cannot be seen to be using resurrected proceedings as a device to obtain what, through error, they were unable to obtain.

“Looking at overall fairness and the way in which the process has been applied – or mis-applied by the Crown – I do not intend to lift the stay.”

In a joint statement, Mr Schofield and his wife said: “Over the past two years we have felt continually let down by the judicial system and today is no different.”

Separate civil proceedings are ongoing, and Mr Davies said: “I don’t want to comment except to say that everything the judge said was fair enough and there is still a civil case, which will be contested.”

Last year, national cyclists’ organisation CTC launched its Road Justice campaign, which is calling for more thorough investigation, prosecution and sentencing in cases where a cyclist is the victim of a road traffic incident.

Rhia Weston, CTC's Road Justice campaign coordinator, told road.cc: “I’m not surprised that Mark feels let down by the justice system as there has been nothing just about the way this case was handled.

“For the judge to say the decision not to proceed was made out of fairness is a farce. It is not fair on the victim and it’s not fair on the wider public whose safety is put in danger by this relaxed approach to bad drivers.

“If the prosecution had proceeded with the trial for dangerous driving from the word go, none of this would have happened,” she continued.

“We are seriously concerned that downgrading of charges from dangerous to careless is becoming more common as prosecutors try to secure guilty pleas to lesser offences in order to rush cases through the courts and save costs.

“Saving costs in the courts is counterproductive because it means piling costs on the services that deal with the aftermath of irresponsible driving – the police, the fire service and the NHS.

“Without taking irresponsible driving seriously we can’t hope to reduce the danger on our roads and the burden of road crime on our already stretched services.

“That is why we want the Government to use its promised review of driving offences and penalties to tackle undercharging and downgrading,” she added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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17 comments

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harrybav | 9 years ago
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Nice to give the CTC SEVEN paragraphs at the end. I know they're a polite well-meaning bunch but let's not imagine those 7 paragraphs achieve anything or are read by anyone but cyclists. I do hope they do more than just preach to us, the converted.

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watercrook | 9 years ago
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its not just motoring cases that CPS take the easy option they use every excuse to downgrade or drop cases to avoid trials part of the problem is the cuts to funding but that should not prevent justice

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watercrook | 9 years ago
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its not just motoring cases that CPS take the easy option they use every excuse to downgrade or drop cases to avoid trials part of the problem is the cuts to funding but that should not prevent justice

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Aileen | 9 years ago
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If a criminal charge can be down graded from dangerous to careless driving by the court, why can't it be upgraded again? Am I missing something? Why is it all about how the driver might feel? What about the victim & his family whose lives will never be the same again? What about the safety of all other road users who still have to share the road with a driver who was considered to be dangerous? Will the courts be held responsible if he kills somebody else?

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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Either way some one cocked up fucking big time and a dangerous driver has got off scott free, free to do the same again. That some one should lose their job. The justice system has become such a joke with respect to dangerous and bad drivers that it is time to sort things yourself. Do what Top Gear did and drop this fucker's caravan from a great height smashing it to pieces.

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rliu | 9 years ago
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Paul J - from what I can gather from reading this article the case was dropped due to the amount of time which has lapsed, which made a fair trial impossible due to the time passing which means the witnesses and other evidence becomes potentially unreliable.

'in R (on the application of Hereford District Council) v Amanda Jane Wiles [2005] E.W.H.C. 306 Admin. In this case, which concerned the power of magistrates to stay criminal proceedings on the grounds of delay, the court ruled that in order to impose a stay the magistrates had to find that owing to a delay a defendant had suffered serious prejudice to the extent that no fair trial could be held'

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Stumps | 9 years ago
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Before a case goes to court for dangerous driving we, the Police, have to have authority to charge from the CPS. In other words we have to submit all the evidence to the CPS to get the charge.

So in this case its already been through the CPS to get the charge of dangerous driving yet another barrister decides thats not the case and bins it.

Its a complete and utter joke if you ask me and the original charging decision should have stood. Its got nothing to do with cut backs or anything else its just incompetence of a particular barrister.

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Paul J | 9 years ago
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A major issue here is that the CPS have been squeezed for funding by successive governments, but especially the current government. With the CPS having to do far more with much less, the end result is that prosecution lawyers don't have the time to properly look at or give thought to cases. The end-result is cluster-fscks like this one, more and more often, and cases collapsing.

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rliu | 9 years ago
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Please don't bring this odious anti HRA nonsense into this, this was a procedural error, a result of the CPS being underfunded and overworked, therefore they make the wrong filing and miss deadlines. The reason why the CPS is overworked? Cos the coalition have cut ministry of justice budgets by half since 2010. Reason why they did that? Because people belive anti HRA nonsense and think anyone who uses the justice system is a terrorist asylum seeker.

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Mickyruff replied to rliu | 9 years ago
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Judge Hart decided not to reinstate the dangerous driving charge, saying "it would not be fair on Mr Davies". Nothing whatsoever to do with being underfunded or overworked. Judge Hart felt sorry for the driver, rather than the cyclist, Mr Schofield.

However, I agree, the prosecuting counsel only did what he could. He's in the clear. Probably not a member of the Caravan Club.

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Mickyruff | 9 years ago
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You'll probably find that the car driver, the prosecuting counsel and the judge are all members of The Caravan Club. Closing ranks or what?

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wwfcb replied to Mickyruff | 9 years ago
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..

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Initialised | 9 years ago
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You want justice?

Sign this petition for Default Liability

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/57804

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Rouboy | 9 years ago
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Is this just another example of how good the CPS (criminal protection service) are?
Just asking!!!!!!!!!

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Critchio | 9 years ago
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The British Justice System has been a joke for longer than I care to remember. Maybe from the instigation into the British legal system of the Human Rights Act 1998 which actually came into force in October of 2000, I am not sure.

Either way, how offenders are sentenced in this country and how the offenders are prosecuted completely bewilders me. Justice? What justice. There is none. What you have now is a sevice that makes token gestures so that law order does not become chaos.

This case is a prime example of the Joke in play.

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kie7077 replied to Critchio | 9 years ago
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Critchio wrote:

The British Justice System has been a joke for longer than I care to remember. Maybe from the instigation into the British legal system of the Human Rights Act 1998 which actually came into force in October of 2000, I am not sure.

Either way, how offenders are sentenced in this country and how the offenders are prosecuted completely bewilders me. Justice? What justice. There is none. What you have now is a sevice that makes token gestures so that law order does not become chaos.

This case is a prime example of the Joke in play.

I don't see the Human Rights Act having anything to do with it. Our laws are badly written and poorly enforced - that's the problem.

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jacknorell | 9 years ago
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Yet again the 'justice' system shows that the only party in it that receives a 'fair process' is the perpetrator.

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