Christopher Williams [2019] EWCA Crim 1528

The applicant was convicted of two breaches of an enforcement notice and fined. He applied for an extension of time, around 4 years, to renew his application for leave to appeal against conviction. No “convincing reason” was given for the delay but the merits were considered.

The applicant was served with an enforcement notice in 2011, the following year he pleaded guilty to two breaches and was fined. In 2013 he faced two further breaches of the original enforcement notice. There was no application for a stay or other plea in bar. He denied the offences saying that the prosecution had said that the vehicles in question were not scrap.

The grounds for appeal were that it was an abuse of process to accept a basis of plea, but then to prosecute for the same offences on the same facts at a later date. Further, the prosecution failure to disclose the basis of plea misled the jury on a material point in issue.

Held: the prosecution could not be said, by the acceptance of the plea, to have accepted that the relevant vehicles could never be said to be scrap. Acceptance of the plea did not mean the applicant was entitled to keep vehicles on the land indefinitely. The basis arguably was not required in view of the terms of s7A of the CPIA and was a document in the knowledge of the defence. Any application to stay the proceedings would have failed.

The renewed application was refused.