Criminal law
R (on the application of McGill) v Newcastle Magistrates Court [2024] EWHC 1207 (Admin), [2024] All ER (D) 18 (Jun)
The Administrative Court, in allowing the claimant’s judicial review claim, held that the decision of the Acting Legal Team Manager (Crime) of the defendant magistrates’ court, refusing to issue a summons against the claimant’s former business partner (Mr H) (the impugned decision), had been unlawful. The impugned decision had referred to the fact that the claimant had brought a private prosecution against Mr H and his wife which the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) had taken over and discontinued. However, the discontinued proceedings concerned the alleged forgery of banking documents, whereas the request for the summons in the present judicial review concerned an allegation of forgery of a shareholder agreement. The court held that the failure, in making the impugned decision, to appreciate that the CPS had not considered the shareholding agreement forgery allegation had been a public law material failure to have had regard to an obviously relevant consideration, and that, in public law terms, it vitiated the decision. It held
