違反交通案，連官都做唔到

Judicial Appointment and Motoring Offences
Andrew Keogh, Barrister

Solicitor Graham Jones, who already held appointment as a Deputy District Judge, applied for a full time judicial appointment. As might be expected he was of ‘good character’ in the real sense of the phrase, so no doubt was not too concerned to have to disclose the following matters to the Judicial Appointments Commission (‘JAC’):

As at 21 November 2013, he had seven penalty points on his driving licence. This was the result of two convictions: one for speeding in August 2010, resulting in a conviction of February 2011, for which he was fined £650 and received 4 penalty points; and a second for failing to obey a traffic signal in 2012, for which he received a fixed penalty and 3 points.

So, 2 relatively minor motoring matters, or so you might think. The view of JAC on that subject is somewhat different as they say:

Criminal convictions (including motoring) are regarded as inherently serious matters

Would this matter to the outcome of the application however?

Indeed it would said the JAC, when refusing to let him progress his application any further, despite him being an otherwise exceptional candidate.

In a challenge by way of judicial review Mr Jones argued the following points:

i) The material part of JAC’s good character policy does not rationally reflect the purpose pursued by section 63(3) of the 2005 Act.

ii) Even if the policy is lawful, it was not properly applied in this case.

iii) The good character decision reached in relation to Mr Jones was not a rational decision.

Unfortunately for Jones, the challenge failed, although the court did say this:

Although I would grant permission to apply for judicial review, for the reasons set out above, I would dismiss the claim. Given the outstanding success that Mr Jones otherwise had in the District Judge competition, however, I conclude by hoping that, as the first of his convictions will fall away later this year, he will consider re-applying when the next competition is launched

寫完兩篇就看下CrimeLine這電郵，違反交通條例而定罪，申請做官也 不能，做緊官而犯交通例，是否要罷官呢？香港的交通違例是使用刑事審訊程序的，大部份都稱不上嚴重罪行，英國有點兒那個吧！