Secret justice in dock after Standard probe into 'conveyor belt' court system

A SICK pensioner convicted behind closed doors of breaking the Covid lockdown with a visit to his allotment, parents unlawfully fined in dark corners of the justice system over truancy allegations, and women who attended the vigil for Sarah Everard prosecuted while oblivious to criminal cases against them.

- Tristan Kirk

These are just some of the scandals and injustices uncovered by the Evening Standard during a three-year investigation into a secretive justice system used to prosecute Londoners. The single justice procedure was deployed in the pandemic for criminal cases against tens of thousands of people accused of breaking lockdown.

But a forensic inspection of this courts system — branded “conveyor belt” justice — reveals evidence of magistrates convicting and fining defendants in less than a minute, key evidence missing or overlooked, and thousands of prosecutions conducted entirely in secret. New questions are raised today after Covid fines of £15,000 handed to London businesses in unlawful prosecutions were cancelled thanks to a Standard investigation.

White goods shop London Domestic Appliances and Brick Lane restaurant Kyice’s Kitchen were taken to court by Tower Hamlets council over allegations they had broken the pandemic lockdown restrictions.

The council chose to prosecute them through the single justice procedure, which was introduced in 2015 to allow courts to sit in private and deal with cases based on paperwork alone. London Domestic Appliances received fines totalling £14,000 plus £3,000 in costs for a series of alleged incidents, while Kyice’s Kitchen was hit with a £1,000 fine.