Nigel Allcoat’s Eloquent Protest

Nigel Allcoat was a magistrate for 15 years. He resigned from the bench last week after being suspended as a JP and told that he faced an inquiry by the Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Committee. His offence? Spending £40 of his own money to help pay an asylum seeker’s fine. His purpose in doing so, he said, was to stop the man from having to go to prison for defaulting on earlier court fines and charges he could not possibly pay. These included a mandatory £150 charge that the man would have faced, simply for being convicted of non-payment of his fine. Read more of the report by Catherine Heard here.

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Categories: Legal News