UK Law Articles
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The Times
January 26 1998
Frances Gibb on quicker and cheaper alternatives for complex cases
Ministers propose to drop jury for fraud trials
PLANS to scrap trial by jury for complex fraud will be put forward by the Government next month. Alternatives include trial by judge alone or by a judge and lay experts.
The consultation paper to be issued by the Home Office and the Lord Chancellor's Department will outline ways to try complex fraud cases which might be more efficient. The Government is also expected to announce a review of the law of fraud by the Law Commission. Lord Irvine of Lairg, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the Solicitor-General, and Rosalind Wright, director of the Serious Fraud Office, have said there is a case for considering alternatives to juries in fraud trials, although any move to abandon juries will be heavily opposed by the legal profession and civil rights groups.
The plans began under the last Government after a series of prosecution failures culminating in the acquittal, in 1996, of Kevin and Ian Maxwell of conspiracy to defraud the Mirror Group pension funds. The trial cost taxpayers £20 million.
Last October, Lord Falconer said that there was a good case for considering alternatives "to ensure that justice can be delivered more effectively and public confidence maintained". He spoke of the "immense amount of money" which complex fraud was costing the public purse. Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, said last autumn that 1 per cent of trials - mostly the big fraud cases - absorbed 40 per cent of total expenditure in Crown Courts. The Government is also motivated by a wish to take tough action against financial crime.
Roy Amlot, QC, of the Criminal Bar Association, said that barristers would strongly oppose the removal of jury trial for complex fraud. "You run the great danger that the public will view it as one type of justice and one class of justice for white-collar criminals and a different type of justice for everyone else."
If a person was acquitted by a judge sitting alone, or with two lay experts, the public would not accept the verdict as fair and impartial, he said.
