Conviction Against Sunter's Quashed
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ON what the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Parker, called " a highly technical point," the Queen's Bench Divisional Court last week quashed convictions on March 8. 1960. by Northan and Islandshire magistrates sitting at Berwick-uponTweed. who imposed maximum fines totalling £80 for four alleged offences by Sunter Bros., Ltd., of Northallerton, concerning the running condition of one of their vehicles.
Lord Parker said that Sunter Bros. " reluctantly 'S.—because of the illness of a witness—pleaded guilty by letter which arrived on the clay of the hearing, which had been adjourned from January.
The justices were wrong in thinking that if a written plea of guilty was not received by the date of the original hearing—in this case January--they were entitled to hear evidence at the adjourned hearing under the procedure of the Magistrates' Court Act, 1952.
"Once the procedure has been invoked," said Lord Parker, "the accused has the right up to the very last moment to plead guilty under the conditions of the 1957 Act."