Justices clerks are permitted to question fine defaulters as to their ability to pay, but must do so under enquiry without bias, and not as a prosecutor. A warrant for arrest for non-pyment of a fine was neither civil nor criminal in character, but in a category of its own.
Citations:
Times 13-Mar-1998, [1998] EWHC Admin 280
Links:
Statutes:
Magistrates Courts Act 1980 82(4)(b)(I)
Cited by:
Cited – Hutt v Commissioner of the Police of the Metropolis CA 3-Dec-2003
The claimant had first been arrested (unlawfully) for non-payment of fines. He was chronically ill. He had later been re-arrested, again unlawfully for an alleged offence of common assault against one of the original arresting civilian officers, and . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Magistrates
Updated: 27 May 2022; Ref: scu.138401