Whilst dealing with a number of other cases at a Magistrates Court today I bumped in to one of my Clients. I was a little surprised to see him at Court as the cases that I had already been instructed on were not back in Court until about one months time. My Client explained that he was due to stand trial today for a matter of shoplifting but he was going to change his plea to guilty. He asked if I could represent him, and I said that I would.
My Client then told me that he wanted to be sent to prison today, and that he wanted all of his three outstanding cases dealt with today. Then he held up his bag and told me that he had packed his possessions and was ready for prison, and he pointed over to his partner and said that she had come to see him off. I was a little surprised by this Client's instructions and I sat down and discussed his proposal for quite some time. My Client basically had a drug problem and no matter what he did he could not solve his addiction - he believed his only cure was cold turkey whilst detained at one of Her Majesty's Prisons.
When the Client's case was called on I found myself acting like a prosecutor. I had to suggest that my Client was likely to receive a custodial sentence for the matter listed for trial - and to be fair the Client does have a long list of antecedents. The bench then wanted to get a pre-sentence report considering custody, but they wanted to bail my Client to return to Court in three weeks. I then argued and explained that they had sufficient grounds to revoke his bail on the basis of committing further offences on bail etc., etc. Eventually after I managed to convince the Magistrates to remand my Client in custody the Client turned to me, waved, and mouthed, "Thank you".
9 comments:
Very similar to a situation "Bystander" was involved in -> http://thelawwestofealingbroadway.blogspot.com/2005/08/for-his-own-good.html
Does this happen often?
I had seen Bystanders post, he has an excellent blog.
It does not happen that often as generally most Clients want to stay as far away from prison as possible. As the Court Clerk said to the bench today, "This is a strange request, but not an unusual request".
hmm...maybe they work at the same court?...
Nope. If Bystander is anywhere near Ealing Broadway he is the other side of London to me.
Happened on a different day too.
Nope. The solicitor in my case was a lady called Jo.
I keep thinking about going to prison. I dont want a criminal record just somewhere to sleep and food would be good. I could even wash and have clean clothes...
i have just got out myself cant believe how much things have changed in 8 years i dont like life on the outside anymore i need routine again and havent got any chance of work
Its really rare. Only few people want to get into prison to get rid of their mistakes or bad habits.
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