Supreme Court Orders Magistrates' Court to Reconsider £118,000 Fine on Storekeeper скачать в хорошем качестве

Supreme Court Orders Magistrates' Court to Reconsider £118,000 Fine on Storekeeper

The Magistrates’ Court has been ordered by a Supreme Court judge to reconsider a £118,000 fine imposed on a storekeeper who was convicted of unlawful possession of tobacco. In April 2021, Pedro Gomez Arroyo was given what at the time was said to be the largest fine ever imposed at the Magistrates’ Court. He was given 18 months to pay, with six months’ custody in default of payment - but, by the deadline, he had only managed to pay £20,500. Puisne Judge Matthew Happold ruled that the court should have sought further confirmation on how Gomez proposed to pay the fine. At the time Gomez was convicted, he worked as a storekeeper earning £1,200 a month. Initially, he was a co-defendant jointly charged with the store manager and store owner; but the case against them was discontinued when Gomez indicated he would plead guilty. A total of approximately 750,000 cigarettes over the permitted licence were confiscated. In January 2024 an initial appeal to the Magistrates' Court for remission of the balance of the fine was refused by the Stipendiary Magistrate, who upheld the original decision taken by the Justices of the Peace. However, a Supreme Court judge has now asked the Magistrates' Court to reconsider the amount of the fine. In his judgement, Puisne Judge Matthew Happold said the original proceedings had raised "various red flags", and that the "circumstances were such as to raise a real suspicion that someone else had offered to pay" on Gomez's behalf. Mr Justice Happold said that the Justices of the Peace should have asked how Gomez proposed to fund payment, as imposing a fine which an offender cannot pay may well be pointless. He said ‘another means inquiry must take place before an offender can be committed to prison for failure to pay a fine". The Puisne Judge looked ahead to the future, saying that ‘such difficulty can best be avoided by ensuring that the big fish appear in court together with the tiddlers'.