The defendant appealed his conviction for obtaining property by deception. He said the judge should have excluded evidence of allegations of six other similar offences, even though his counsel had not objected at the time.
Held: The judge has a duty himself to challenge evidence if it is clearly not admissible. It would be a misdirection to fail to do so. However that duty did not apply where, as here, there were possibly sustainable arguments for its inclusion. An appeal was not to be used generally to take up points which counsel might have raised at trial.
Judges:
Glidewell LJ, French J, Buckley J
Citations:
Times 11-Nov-1994
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Criminal Evidence
Updated: 25 October 2022; Ref: scu.86880
