Soft Sentencing by Hartlepool Magistrates

[Interested]

The important factor here isnt the location of the offence or who the offender is, we know cases will be heard out of area due to a multitude of factors/mitigation.

More worrying is the "relaxed sentencing" Hartlepool Magistrates have been dishing out for a long time and the obvious direction our Courts are currently heading in. If or to be probably more precise WHEN our whole court system moves to Teesside people may well be in for a sharp culture shock, they have been issuing more severe penalties to offenders for a long time compared to the Hartlepool Courts

Also as highlighted earlier our Youth Court now sits at Teesside Magistrates (Middlesbrough), it was probably difficult enough getting young people and families to attend in Hartlepool never mind Middlesbrough. Are we going to see more warrants issued for non attendance, are the local authority planning to transport these young people and families at another added cost as well as staff the court with Hartlepool workers?

Another worrying issue is the point raised by Jamescampbell78 regarding the Police having to take "injured/those under the influence" arrested offenders across the county to hospitals, not only is this very time consuming on the arresting officers but removes much needed police from our streets for a considerable period of time.

These problems are not going away and will only unfortunately get worse before we see any slight upturn or progress, services very slowly being taken away from Hartlepool will have a detrimental effect on the Town.

What is our Council Tax paying for, (am i right in thinking the Police raised their element this year) - 3 or 4 Police Officers to Police the town on a Friday and Saturday night as the other 4 are babysitting those in custody across the county in hospitals?

[Jamescampbell78]

I think Hartlepool has always suffered from being part of Cleveland Police. In terms of investment in policing v Council Tax element paid we've been short changed for a long time.

Further centralisation of the court services to Middlesbrough will worsen this.

If we're an independent borough we should have opted for a Hartlepool Police service a long time ago then strategy and the resource allocated to support it could have been defined and allocated at a local level resulting in far more effective policing which in turn would have taken the strain off the court system.

We should have also sought to distance ourselves from Cleveland police for other reasons.

[tankerville]

Just to add insult to injury the following week magistrates dealt with a number of traffic related offences;

Case; 1.
Failing to notify the transfer of a vehicle; £200 fine. £110 costs. & £20.00 surcharge.

Case;2.
Failing to meet insurance requirements; £200 fine. £110 costs. & £20.00 surcharge.

Case;3.
Failing to meet insurance requirements £35.00 fine. £110 costs. & £20.00 surcharge.

It would seem these cases are far more easier to deal with giving mandatory sentencing, it's a pity they cannot adopt the same for the more serious offences.

[not4me]

This seems to back up what's already been said.

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/tesside-hardcore-crooks-outnumber-any-7017592

[tankerville]

Fear not we're reliably informed that the Crime Figures for Hartlepool are down backed up by Barry Coppinger
on his visit to the town.

They are indeed down;

Because it's now a waste of time reporting it.