THE HOT STORY

Campaigners are urging reform of the Single Justice Procedure (SJP) after an 87-year old woman with dementia was convicted for £43 of unpaid car tax.

The SJP allows rapid prosecutions in closed hearings, raising concerns about wrongful charges against vulnerable individuals. Errors have seen wrongful prosecutions and charges against people who are ill or have died.

Penelope Gibbs, director of Transform Justice, described the SJP as “currently an unfair system,” adding that it is “cheap and speedy for prosecutors, but involves prosecuting hundreds of people on an industrial scale, often for small mistakes.

Until prosecutors make the effort to find out who they are charging, vulnerable, ill and disabled people will continue to be