If you have been interviewed by the police and they have not charged your or no further action has been taken, then you are likely to have been bailed to return or released under investigation.

This can be a highly frustrating and uncertain period.  If you were represented by a duty solicitor, you may not have had much communication from them since they left the police station.

The state of the criminal justice system is such that there is clearly a hesitation to move cases forward more quickly into the prosecution stage, given the continued backlog within the courts.

Sometimes there is nothing do to but wait for the police to move through the investigation process, but often there are things that can be done to try and bring the investigation to a swift conclusion.  This is where pre charge engagement (“PCE”) can be a viable tool.

What is PCE?

This is a mechanism where the suspect of an offence provides additional evidence, information or written representations to the police or the Crown Prosecution Service (“CPS”) before a decision to charge is made.  The aim of PCE is to avoid a prosecution, either through no action at all or an out of court disposal such as caution or conditional caution. 

What can we do at CJS Defence Ltd?

·      Review the police case up to this point 

·      Highlight evidence that may support your defence at an early stage

·      Pursue lines of enquiry that the police have not, such as CCTV, witness statements, forensic evidence such as 

·      Present detailed representations to the police

·      Obtain medical reports if there are issues around mental health

PCE is not always the correct approach

There are cases where less is more and it would not be helpful to provide the police or CPS with information that they have not been able to obtain already.  This is why the decision to pursue PCE requires careful thought and consideration with your lawyers.

Why instruct CJS Defence Ltd

CJS Defence have extensive experience in PCE and diverting prosecutions in to either no further action being taken or a non-prosecution outcome.

Case study 1

CJS Defence were instructed by client who faced fraud allegations concerning over £1m said to have been taken from their father before his death.  We worked with our client to establish that their father had legally given over money and paid for work for an annex to the house.  We made written representations and provided a detailed bundle of material concerning the health of our client and the receipts and messages from their father prior to his death.  Where there were some ambiguities over the money spent our client was able to offer repayment to the estate while probate was being completed. 

The case was concluded with no further action being taken against our client.

Case Study 2 

CJS represented a client who was accused of assault by his wife.  They were separated and going through an acrimonious divorce.  She made allegations that he assaulted her at their home address.  Our client vehemently denied the allegation.  He was interviewed and following his release, he provided us with messages he had received on a family I-pad. The messages were between his wife and her brother and appeared to suggest that they would “do whatever was necessary” to ruin him.  We provide this information along with representations to the police and they agreed to take no further action.

Summary

Every situation is different, but it is always beneficial to review your case and explore whether PCE could be in your best interests.  It could save months of anxiety waiting for a decision.  Even if PCE is not appropriate in your case it is still good to have regular contact with the police to find out what is going on in the case and be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

If you would like to speak about your case, please contact Chris Stevens on 0208 264 5500 or chris@cjsdefence.co.uk.