Would You Take Driving Points For Someone Else?

I've been mulling it over and I wonder whether Huhne's explanation will be that he didn't want to hang his ex-wife out to dry by contradicting her story. After giving her all the time that he could, she still wouldn't tell the truth and so he was compelled to plead guilty at that point.

......or somesuch self-serving nonsense.
 
Wow! He pleaded guilty. It will be pretty outrageous of he isn't sent to prison and it's already pretty bad that he put the taxpayer to the expence of hauling him all the way to trial and preparing for a contested case.

When I were a lad it happened a couple of times in cases we had that a youth, borrowing a mate's car, would give that guy's name when stopped for something or other and the cops would then prosecute the owner and swear blind he was the one. I came to think they did that on purpose as a weird sort of justice of their own kind for being given the run around. I guess they figured the guy would go find his friend and sort him out.
 
PCoJ is usually six months to a year inside - and with only a limited discount for his guilty plea, since he put the crown to the time and expense of preparing a full trial by his late change of plea. If he'd entered a guilty plea right at the start, he'd get a 33% discount on his sentence. A guilty plea once the trial date has been set is 25%, and 10% at any time after that.

So he will get only a 10% discount off his sentence - five weeks if he's sentenced to a year. He'll then serve half of the sentence in prison and the remaining half on probation; he could be made to wear an electronic tag so that he is under home curfew from 7pm to 7am. He will have to engage with the probation service, meeting his probation officer regularly and taking steps to address his offending behaviour. Given his previous occupation, he'll probably be sent to an 'open' prison, where he'll be able to wear his own clothes and have more home comforts than in a prison where murderers, rapists etc are sent.
 
Agatha said:
PCoJ is usually six months to a year inside - and with only a limited discount for his guilty plea, since he put the crown to the time and expense of preparing a full trial by his late change of plea. If he'd entered a guilty plea right at the start, he'd get a 33% discount on his sentence. A guilty plea once the trial date has been set is 25%, and 10% at any time after that.

So he will get only a 10% discount off his sentence - five weeks if he's sentenced to a year. He'll then serve half of the sentence in prison and the remaining half on probation; he could be made to wear an electronic tag so that he is under home curfew from 7pm to 7am. He will have to engage with the probation service, meeting his probation officer regularly and taking steps to address his offending behaviour. Given his previous occupation, he'll probably be sent to an 'open' prison, where he'll be able to wear his own clothes and have more home comforts than in a prison where murderers, rapists etc are sent.
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Sounds bang on the money to me. I don't think open prisons are necessarily free from those predisposed to violence and intimidation but I would far rather do my time there than in a 'real' British prison.

I wonder what she will get if she goes down, given that her defence contains much of the mitigation. She is paying a very high price for her injudicious and probably vengeful disclosure.
 
well, the wheels of justice turn pretty slowly - exactly a year ago today that I started the thread - hello younger me :)

It's such a curious case - I am surprised it's taken as such a serious offense - I guess it's one of those where you start with a very small offense (3 points) and then by repeatedly lying about it end up with a very large one....

there's a lesson there somewhere.

I'm curious as to whether the judge will take into account the waste of time caused by a change of plea at this late stage - and also what are the likely outcomes for his vengeful ex-wife. If he pleads guilty then will he be called as a witness against her? Or is she pleading not guilty by marital coercion - ie admitting she did it but portraying herself as a actor with no-free will bound by her controlling husband?
 
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Agatha said:
PCoJ is usually six months to a year inside - and with only a limited discount for his guilty plea, since he put the crown to the time and expense of preparing a full trial by his late change of plea. If he'd entered a guilty plea right at the start, he'd get a 33% discount on his sentence. A guilty plea once the trial date has been set is 25%, and 10% at any time after that.

So he will get only a 10% discount off his sentence - five weeks if he's sentenced to a year.
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I wonder if we couldn't have some system of fines to compensate for the loss to the taxpayers for such a waste of time? Does that happen? Could it work? It seems a bit galling that a multi-millionaire (I presume - as most of the big wig politicians are) can repeatedly lie, cost the state however many tens/hundreds of thousands and then go, "oh yeah, actually I did do it...."
 
Its the fact he lied to his colleagues and the public and tried to get out on procedure before he finally made an admission that really gets me. It is so sad that there are people like that, who behave in such a way.
 
He's entered a guilty plea, so there will be no trial for him, he'll be convicted today and then sentencing will (probably) be adjourned for reports. On the day of the sentencing hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service will summarise the offence, his solicitor will present what mitigation s/he can, and the judge will have already read any reports produced - like a report on his mental state, the impact on his family if he's jailed etc. Then the judge will sentence him, and as explained above, he'll get a 10% discount of the sentence (and off any fine) on account of his late plea.

I don't know what his ex-wife intends to plead, but she'll have difficulty making a case for a not guilty plea now that Mr Huhne has been convicted.
 
I wonder how long before we find out the full details of Constance Briscoe's arrest last year and suspension from the bar. No details of what it was for were given at the time, but there were strong hints from people in the know that it was to do with this case (and hence was sub judice because the case was ongoing). I suppose it will all come out at/after Vicky Pryce's trial.
 
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andyandy said:
well, the wheels of justice turn pretty slowly - exactly a year ago today that I started the thread - hello younger me :)

It's such a curious case - I am surprised it's taken as such a serious offense - I guess it's one of those where you start with a very small offense (3 points) and then by repeatedly lying about it end up with a very large one....

there's a lesson there somewhere.

I'm curious as to whether the judge will take into account the waste of time caused by a change of plea at this late stage - and also what are the likely outcomes for his vengeful ex-wife. If he pleads guilty then will he be called as a witness against her? Or is she pleading not guilty by marital coercion - ie admitting she did it but portraying herself as a actor with no-free will bound by her controlling husband?
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He will certainly not be a witness for the prosecution, you can bet on that. The prosecution case will be the bare facts - she filled in the form and made an untruthful declaration (the form gives a prominent warning of the consequences) and then she will be tested in the witness box. Then it's just a question whether the jury buys it.

And whether it should be or not, it is an offence which is taken pretty seriously. Huhne has lots of money. He could have taken the driving ban and hired a driver for 6 months rather than wrapping his soon-to-be jilted wife up in this mess.
 
andyandy said:
I wonder if we couldn't have some system of fines to compensate for the loss to the taxpayers for such a waste of time? Does that happen? Could it work? It seems a bit galling that a multi-millionaire (I presume - as most of the big wig politicians are) can repeatedly lie, cost the state however many tens/hundreds of thousands and then go, "oh yeah, actually I did do it...."
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Anglolawyer could probably tell you more, but I doubt he qualifies for legal aid, so he'll have to pay his defence costs at the very least. PCoJ is almost always custodial, I'll have a look to see if a fine can be associated with it as well.
 
Agatha said:
He's entered a guilty plea, so there will be no trial for him, he'll be convicted today and then sentencing will (probably) be adjourned for reports. On the day of the sentencing hearing, the Crown Prosecution Service will summarise the offence, his solicitor will present what mitigation s/he can, and the judge will have already read any reports produced - like a report on his mental state, the impact on his family if he's jailed etc. Then the judge will sentence him, and as explained above, he'll get a 10% discount of the sentence (and off any fine) on account of his late plea.

I don't know what his ex-wife intends to plead, but she'll have difficulty making a case for a not guilty plea now that Mr Huhne has been convicted.
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No Agatha, her defence is consistent with his guilty plea. They both now agree he was the driver and she took his points. Her case is that he made her do it. It will be interesting to read about her evidence, which she may give today.
 
Agatha said:
Anglolawyer could probably tell you more, but I doubt he qualifies for legal aid, so he'll have to pay his defence costs at the very least. PCoJ is almost always custodial, I'll have a look to see if a fine can be associated with it as well.
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I am sure he will be ordered to pay prosecution costs and that he does not have public funding for his defence. I think Agatha is right that he is going to jail and if she is not right then it's time to start the revolution.
 
It's his wife who is guilty of PCoJ as well.
So, if you think you are doing one of your kids a favor by taking their points, if it is found out then they get a conviction for PCoJ which is far worse.

I am a participant on a Motoring forum that specializes in giving advice . We get this a lot. We also get the 'I can't remember who was driving' story a lot , that gets you 6 points rather than 3 if you can't show reasonable diligence in your attempts to find out who the driver was.

Sometimes it's better to cough.
 
Professor Yaffle said:
Nigel Farage considering whether to stand in resulting by election.
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Intestingly I think UKIP have the most to lose from the election - short of winning (unlikely ) then it might puncture some of the UKIP bubble if they limp home with 5% of the vote.....
 
From the BBC article online today:

Granting Huhne unconditional bail until a sentence date to be fixed, Mr Justice Sweeney said: "As Mr Kelsey-Fry has foreshadowed, you should have no illusions whatsoever as to the sort of sentence that you are likely to receive."
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Vicky Pryce's trial starts tomorrow.
 
I may be a member of that same motorists' forum, Captain Swoop! I have a different name there.

Maximum sentence for PCoJ is life imprisonment, and the sentencing guidelines are worth a look.
 
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