Mayor urges review over pensioner's conviction

West Midlands' Mayor Andy Street said the man was prosecuted for 'an honest mistake'

The West Midlands' mayor has asked the justice secretary to review a fast-track justice system after a housebound 90-year-old was prosecuted for an uninsured car.

A letter from the 90-year-old, from Walsall, to the court was first reported by Evening Standard journalist Tristan Kirk.

In it, the man said he did not see letters about a court case through his care for his wife who has advanced dementia and who picked up post before he saw it.

The Ministry of Justice said mitigating circumstances would be considered in each case.

The man said he struggled to walk and write and had stopped driving as his health had deteriorated "very quickly".

Reminder letters about any fines or registering his car as off the road (SORN) were not seen due to his wife's condition, he added.

"If post arrives it can often 'disappear' as she collects everything up including bits of chewed food, clothing, toilet roll, and any papers - she gathers them all into bags ready to 'go home' when 'her dad comes to collect her'," he added.

When he saw a letter from the court, he said he immediately showed it to his son who helped him to fill in the SORN notice online "straight away".

The 90-year-old said he would not apply for another driving licence and his son would help him sell his car.

He said being housebound and his health issues meant the situation was "innocently overlooked" and urged the court to take into account his "previous unblemished record of over 60 years driving".

'An honest mistake'

The man's case was handled through the Single Justice Procedure (SJP), which allows the court to deal with some cases based on written evidence alone, according to the West Midlands Mayor Andy Street.

More than 615,000 cases were handled through SJP between January 2022 and October 2023, government figures show.

A magistrate with a legal advisor decides on lesser offences - such as driving without insurance - when a defendant pleads guilty or fails to respond to a notice of their prosecution.

But Mr Street, along with Walsall North MP Eddie Hughes, wrote to Justice Secretary Alex Chalk to ask for a review of SJP to "avoid such heartless prosecutions".

They said the 90-year-old man received a sentence of a three-month conditional discharge and costs of £50 for what they called "an honest mistake".

In the letter, they questioned if the case's prosecutor saw the man's letter and called for more "care and attention" in the system.

"Neither of us underestimate the need for the justice system to act swiftly, but to do so in the face of fairness and humanity goes against British values," Mr Street and Mr Hughes added.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Sentencing decisions are made by the independent judiciary who consider the facts of each case including any mitigating circumstances.

“Only uncontested and non-imprisonable offences are dealt with under the single justice procedure – magistrates are always assisted by a legally qualified adviser, defendants can choose to go to court if they want to, and the details of their case are published to provide transparency.”