Man with genuine driving license sent to jail for four months...

[Gromit]

...and he was just a passenger in the vehicle.

Bungling cops wrongly thought his photo should have been in black and white but it was in colour. So he was arrested for having a fake licence. He was charged and was sent to Strangeways until the DVLA got around to confirming it was real, FOUR MONTHS later.

Meanwhile, they are letting murders and rapists out early because the prisons are over crowded. And what a terrible waste of money and resources, not to mention the compensation he will receive. And you can bet no one will be suspended or lose their job for such gross incompetence.

How much would you want for four months in jail, if you were mistakenly charged?

[Canary42]

£4m

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

Thank you for trying, but as I have previously said I may be wrong in this particular instance, but it seems the rules were about to be altered back in 2010.

[Gromit]

He had a real driving licence obtained legally. That is an established fact. Why bother posting nonsense if you just ignore the whole premise of the story?

[jackthehat]

Your 'perspective' as you so coyly term it, is not required in this instance, AOG.

The facts are before you..........you could always answer the question?

[Gromit]

AOG Re, your red herring:

Your link is clearly about FAILED asylum seekers, and this man has not yet failed.

So how much compo would AOG want for being thrown into jail for 4 months for no reason?

[Gromit]

I confess, I did not know double parking was actually illegal. I just thought it was bad and inconsiderate driving. The law was changed eight years ago making double parking illegal. It was a stealth law, part of the Traffic Management Act 2004 and got little publicity.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

Before issuing your insults around, it isn't me who is posting nonsense but you, since it was you who introduced this thread.

It didn't go unnoticed that for one who generally insists on others providing a link to the story under discussion, you yourself failed to do so in this instance.

Could it be that it was because it was a 'dreadful' Daily Mail story, one of which would have been condemned as a non-story by your very self, had it been posted by myself?

Or could your change of attitude be all down to the nationality of the accused, and chance to make your continuous swipes at the Police?

[joko]

my licence is dated 4/4/07 so it must have happened just after then because mine is colour

even with that being the case, why then did it take 4 MONTHS!... surely a simple phone call to the DVLA would have sorted this in minutes... it wouldnt have even gone to court.
the arresting officer should have done this BEFORE he even filed any paperwork.

i know the DVLA are swines to get hold of on the phone - i have waited around an hour in the past - but thats no excuse, to say you couldnt get hold of them or something, they should have written, or sent an officer to their offices.

id be interested to know WHO IS RESPONSIBLE for this being rushed through - did the arresting officer just hand the man over to the system, and have no further involvement, and its the system has messed it up - (perhaps the man was rude or abusive and he just wanted to teach him a lesson by detaining him for a short while)

or did the Arresting officer push and push and not do the necessary checks etc then leave him languishing...?

if the latter, id be asking a lot of questions about racism here...
sorry to be the one to bring up the race card, but it makes no logical sense for this to be an administrative balls up...maybe a week or two, but 4 months!

anyone know the race of the officer?

i hope he gets a nice chunk of cash out of this.

[venator]

We could do with a bit more info here - this guy's been here for 8 years as an asylum seeker, and has a National Insurance number - is he entitled to be working?

He's driving on a provisional licence too - how long has he had that, and is his insurance in order?

He'll be able to afford a chauffeur when he gets the compo, of course...

[jackthehat]

No, Venator, for the purposes of the post, we need to know *none* of the above.

All his 'papers' were legal, legitimate and in order. He was a 'passenger' in a double parked car.........

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// Your link is clearly about FAILED asylum seekers, and this man has not yet failed. ///

How do you know that he is not a FAILED asylum seeker, who is still fighting extradition?

It is said that he has been resident in Britain for eight years, surely he would have been granted citizenship long ago?

[Gromit]

Why is his nationality relevent? It isn't. It could happen to YOU!

And I read it on the BBC Manchester website, I didn't even know the DM had covered it. They actually did a good job of reporting the facts, pity some of its readers have trouble reading the facts.

[footieshorts]

Yes - my driving licence was renewed in 2009, and the photograph is in black-and-white. My mother's is renewed every three years as she is 85 and her photo is also in black-and-white.

[anotheoldgit]

jackthehat

/// He was a 'passenger' in a double parked car......... ///

Yes that is correct the car was double parked, but how do we know that he was in fact just the passenger and not the driver?

How many times has a person pretended to be a passenger, so as to escape conviction?

[Gromit]

AOG

The Daily Mail report refers to him as an asylum SEEKER four times. That means he is in the process of seeking asylum. If he had ever been turned down, it would have called him a failed asylum seek.

And your answer to the question is..?

[bednobs]

for once i find myself agreeing with AOG. I am naturally inclined to be a liberal. However, i do think asylum seekers should be kept in detention while their cases are heard, to prevent them absconding and never being heard of again. I think that this might make this country a little less of a prime destination (people quite often have to come through many other safe countries to get here (we are after all an island)) but don't ask for asylum there. Also if you are fleeing your homeland in fear of your life, being kept under detention can't be all that bad surely?. I too question why an asylum application takes 8 years.
Sorry, it's an Un pc view, but there you go

[jackthehat]

AOG - I take your point but whether or not he actually *was* the driver was subsequently 'trumped' by the issue as to whether the means he used to identify himself was false...........and it wasn't!!

[Gromit]

// ...but how do we know that he was in fact just the passenger and not the driver? //

Because he was not charged with a driving offence.

Even by your standards, your attempts to evade answering the question are laughable.

[FredPuli43]

AOG, it could just be that he was correctly described as a passenger because the traffic police saw he was the passenger when they approached the car ! Isn't that what you deduce from the Daily Mail report and the other links ?
He certainly deserves some compensation. People are refused bail by magistrates all the time because the magistrates are assured they are not likely to attend otherwise and there is enough evidence for a prima facie case, but this is an example of extraordinary negligence in investigation and prosecuting. Saying that the prosecution was brought in good faith is not really sufficient defence in this case.

[footieshorts]

If, as the way the discussion is going, the man attempted to 'remove' himself from the driving position in the car to appear to be a passenger as he saw police approaching, then that itself indicates that he was acting suspiciously.....! Especially as the car was illegally parked and therefore about to attract the attention of any passing police officers.

What on earth would he have to be afraid of if he in fact had correct and complete ID?