"A man who specialised in plundering hotel car parks was found to have six Mercedes sat-nav heads, and the proper tools to get them out quickly. Who buys them? They are certainly not a do-it-yourself item to fit as Merc electronics are notoriously complex."
Perhaps he still had six because he found it was easier to steal them than sell them?
".....we awarded compensation of over £6,000 to the housing association that owns the house. That works out at around £600 per minute...."
Isn't that the same rate as Barristers?
"China refuses to take them back"
There must be a "take-away" joke here, somewhere.
"A JP who deals with cases from a major airport tells me that there are several hundred people who live semi-permanently in the terminals, a high proportion of them mentally ill or addicted."
Can I have the Movie rights please?
Sorry, I'm not really myself at the moment. As soon as I find out who I am I'll let you know.
Don't get me started on legal aid ...
Suffice to say I could cause Bystander's blog to crash with the quantity of deficiencies in the "new" system. I have had over 20 years as both a magistrates' clerk and in private practice. Without hesitation I say this government has made a poor system worse and rendered itself a hostage to fortune in relation to the hidden costs accruing from the errors it has made.
I expect having a Home Secr'y of the Month probably makes petty concerns about the actual workability of a new system secondary to making aggressive predictions about the savings and efficiency that your successor will enjoy.
Can't we ship the Chinamen to Vietnam and vice versa? After all, they all look the same.
How did the axe bear up to the trauma? Ray Mears says in his books not to use the back as a hammer, but then he goes and does it on camera all the time. That makes me sad. Why will no-one think of the axes?
"Major Jebb invented the radial prison design that allows supervising officers to see right along the wings from one place."
The "panopticon"? Initiallly thought of by J Bentham, wasn't it?
(I thought that too, Dave, but Wilkipedia put me straight)
Edited By Siteowner
Which Airport - not heard of such a thing at our Airport in the Countryside
Indeed, MR. Heasman. I'm somewhat shocked to find Bystander contradicting M. Foucault; after all, the two are in perfect agreement about the role of prison (ideally, none).
Nice, I got nothing when a violent partner of mine smashed my windows and stole property, the Police just laughed.
I'm male in case you hadn't guessed.
Re chinese and must be a take away joke there, see above
by Andrew C
I was in court recently in Bradford, where 3 chinese defendants were listed to be heard by video link for a plea and case management hearing. It was obvious that the case could be sorted out if the defendants were present in the court building and instructions could be taken. So arrangements were made to have them produced for the afternoon. The judge on being told that they could be produced said, in open court, that there could then be, "a plea and take away!"
Re unintended consequences of legal aid changes, there has been a big increase in defendants electing crown court trial, so that they can obtain legal aid. Legal aid is means tested in the magistrates court but not the crown court.
I can testify to the probable veracity of the airport story, as I spent about a week doing the very same thing in Luton Airport after getting myself into a Christ-awful financial tangle from which I have only just extricated myself. The fact that my sole possession of any value was a laptop computer probably helped deflect the attentions of airport security personnel, whom I would in any case suppose have better things to do than harass down-on-their luck individuals with nowhere else to go.
I thought it was quite well known that a lot of homeless people who live in the airport. It's warm and dry, there are pretty good facilities (airport bathrooms are very well equipped), its crowded enough that nobody notices you, they blend in with the passengers who have a sriously delayed flight.
As long as they can get some food, and get their laundry done (not sure how they manage this but I imagine its possible)
squigs: Is it buggery, mate! And I didn't get much in the way of food either, since a mixture of cowardice and personal dignity prevented me from resorting to begging or petty theft. Oh well, at least there were plenty of pretty hostesses who didn't go with the trousers option on the uniform...
Many Chinese illegal immigrants are jailed for destroying their passports en route, but nobody knows what to do with them on release because China refuses to take them back.
Get the Taiwanese to set up a town near the Chinese border specially for them?
A man who had a row with his partner took an axe to household fixtures to express his frustration. I hope he felt better afterwards, because we awarded compensation of over £6,000 to the housing association that owns the house. That works out at around £600 per minute of temper-time.
As a matter of interest, was £6,000 the sum that the HA needed to buy and install new fixtures?
We had to deal with a car main dealer who had been buying stolen parts and fitting them as new to unsuspecting customers' cars.
Trading standards were not much impressed, and neither was the Crown Court judge to whom we sent the matter for sentence.
Important to say not a Merc dealer.
Squigs - which airport? Not at our Gestapo run one in the Country I wager
(ms. Sodding - I would tell you but your email is bouncing)
Edited By Siteowner
"Many Chinese illegal immigrants are jailed for destroying their passports en route, but nobody knows what to do with them on release because China refuses to take them back.
Get the Taiwanese to set up a town near the Chinese border specially for them?"
Er, that would be the *island* of Taiwan? Or are you suggesting they should just be dropped in the sea half-way between the two and left to swim to whichever side they prefer?
Actually, it would be interesting if some of the 'hang em and flog em and send em back' mob that post here could come up with some practical and legal answers (as opposed to Daily Mail fantasy) as to what to do with such people.
"some practical and legal answers"
Well, the long term answer would be to make China a less oppressive and nasty place to live, so people prefer to stay there rather than move half the world away from their families. That's rather idealistic, and it's not going to happen in a million billion years.
Tony, our dear leader, has come up with the spiffing wheeze of a slight modification to the plan. It still relies on people doing a comparison of the nastiness and oppressive nature of the two governments and deciding that they'd rather stay in China, but it's not fueled by idealism in /quite/ the same way.
How did you manage to order £6,000 damages, I thought the maximum per offence was £5,000. Was there more than one offence, perhaps a seperate count for each axe blow?
Commenting by HaloScan
