Failure to provide a specimen for analysis reasonable excuse?

[Sanctuary]

Hello,
I have been trying to find answers to what I got myself in to here until now so just joined this forum.
Brief background to being stopped up to present;
Stayed up until 3.30am Friday May 8th watching 2015 election results unfold from May 7th.
Spent Friday working until late and went as planned to friends house in partner's all electric car arriving after they had eaten at 8.00pm and got to bed at midnight to research next days journey. Spent far too long researching where to park and charge on own computer.
Woke to set alarm at 6.00am and set off for London in electric car having had second night in a row with little sleep.
Plugged car in to chosen charger, told can stay there indefinitely by supermarket customer services Got back to car around 6pm for journey back to friends house to find car plugged in still but it hasn't charged at all..oh no!(needs 12 hrs on this sort of charger). I can normally check this with a smart phone app but I broke it recently and still haven't decided what to replace it with. Re-started charger, all looked OK went for a walk to kill time. Returned about midnight to check and still not enough charge to get to nearest rapid charger so sat in car for a couple more hours until told I couldn't stop in car park by store employee.
Just enough charge to get to rapid charger only if driven slowly and without heater on so I set off. Sat Nav was set for shortest route and twice it put me in a housing estate. Second time I turned back to main road I caught kerb and got a suspected puncture. That means even less range available to get to essential rapid charger now and also these cars have no spare wheel or tyre and it is now 3.00am on a Sunday morning with this to deal with and I am already feeling absolutely shattered and cold from having had to have the heating off. No smartphone and there is nobody around to ask for help so decided to get to nearby A40 and park up in a layby where I might find assistance or I could call recovery and be hopefully quickly be found.
I had just got on A40 driving slowly with a suspected puncture when, passing a long vehicle stopped in the left carriageway or on the hard shoulder I saw police ahead dealing with some incident there. Before I was able to stop to ask for help, somebody jumped out in to the road in front of me and flagged me over.
I pulled over and jumped out quickly to see the damage to NDF tyre under the better street lighting there. I turned to see 2 policeman running towards me so stood up and one said Oh you look unsteady on your feet. I was because I sometimes get dizzy if I have been sat down and jump up quick at age 55 but I didn't say so. His colleague shouted from in the car where is the key fob and I told him in the centre console. This was the start of a period of constant interruption when he kept asking me the same question and I knew the fob was in the car or it bleeps. He accused me of playing silly buggers and was getting increasingly agitated and all the time I knew he was wrong. Finally he found the fob in the car and then appeared to have no idea how to move it. During that distraction the officer standing next to me had been repeatedly interrupted but I recall he said he thought I might have been drinking and at that point I hatched a plan and discovered by short circuiting the interrupted procedure and asking him that there were 3 options.
1.Blow in the bag and pass in which case I would be left there cold, shattered still broken down with no idea of when where and how to find a special low rolling resistance tyre for an electric vehicle at 3.00am on a Sunday morning.
2.Blow in the bag and fail in which case I would be arrested and taken for further testing.
3.Refuse to blow and be arrested immediately.
I could see he wanted to make an arrest and jokingly said I preferred option 3 as represented guaranteed sanctuary and rest and asked for an en suite quiet top floor no pets with a balcony and before I knew it was handcuffed and put in a police van.
They drove me for what seemed like ages to the station and the only thing I could think of during that journey was that there was no way I was going to be going back that distance again to deal with an electric car with both a flat battery and a flat tyre with no guarantee I could make the rapid charger for hours which might charge the car to 80% in half an hour if it was working as there is currently a 25% charger failure rate!
I was aware of the lengthy repeat procedure in the station but really wasn't listening hard to it all. All I wanted was the car to be safely looked after and a bed immediately.
I was offered legal advice and turned it down until the word free was mentioned and at that point changed my mind.
I was handed a piece of paper and pen and a phone and I duly wrote down the name of the legal adviser. I explained what had happened and was told this could be very serious if I didn't provide a sample which I should now do and that I should call back if there was any problem so I thanked them for the advice and agreed to do so.
On then offering to provide any sample required having been given the advice I was told NO. You had your chance 2 minutes ago now we no longer need to take one. I queried this immediately and asked if there was audio and video of what just happened. I was then led to a cell and despite not being ale to sleep was free to go at about 4pm the following day. All my belongings were returned but for the paper with the advisers name on it who I had not been allowed to speak to again despite their advise to do so if there was any problem with me executing their advice.
I have since tried but have failed to find out who gave it. It has been suggested it was not necessarily a solicitor but somebody on a duty roster.
I called the vehicle recovery number from the separate police station front office, who incidentally found the number on line as it is in the car on the back of the tax disc and I wasn't given the opportunity to get the number or call them the night before and before the taxi I had to pay for took me there the recovery vehicle had arrived. Once he had the keyfob it was loaded in less than a minute and we were on our way but now to my house 76 miles away as it is part of the warranty service! The driver said he lived two streets away and could have done it the night before!
After the realisation of my predicament having now got involved with the law I am asking myself the following;
Why didn't I call recovery earlier the night before?
Why didn't the police see that as the obvious solution to my stated tiredness and need for sanctuary problem?
They never asked if I had vehicle recovery.
What a fine mess I appear to have got myself in which was never even necessary?
I strongly believe there could have been a far more sensible outcome had it not been for the increasingly aggravated and accusational interruptions from the police man in my car who refused to believe the fob was in there despite me repeatedly assuring him and even letting his colleague pat me down to verify I hadn't got it.
I hope this is a salutary lesson to all.
I am struggling to learn the workings of the law. I know I have to show contrition. My main question is is this unexpected additional sleep deprivation and tiredness a "reasonable excuse" or do I have to plead guilty?
Now I will take a look at the experience of others on here. Thanks for reading.

 

[Sanctuary]

Oh, forgot to mention, I do have a medical history of tiredness and asking my GP for help with it and it is always in April May or June as recorded in my medical records which I have yesterday asked for a copy of and agreed to pay for and currently await. I have had several blood tests after presenting and one provided a diagnosis of illness.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

I cannot say for certain without having reviewed all of the prosecution evidence, however in my experience tiredness would be highly unlikely to be accepted as a reasonable excuse for failing to provide the specimens of breath. With regards to the legal advice, it may not have been a solicitor who advised you, however it will have been an accredited police station representative who is qualified to give legal advice.

You could however, certainly use the issue of tiredness as a mitigating factor in your case. This may well be relevant to the severity of the sentence that is imposed by the Court as if you can demonstrate that you had an honestly held but unreasonable excuse then this would leave you in the lowest sentencing bracket of a 12-16 month disqualification and a Band C fine.

If you are interested in representation then you are welcome to contact my department on 0333 999 7158.

 

[Sanctuary]

Thought I had better reply to my own thread as no replies from elsewhere yet.

I should apologise for the somewhat rushed original post here, what happened was I clicked on the ask for free advice from a solicitor which asked me to register details and opened another window to do that where I was logged in. I then must have gone back to previous page as when I finally hit send for the original post, instead of getting a message saying "Thank You" or "Sent Message" I got a "You need to be logged in to perform this action message" and had lost the whole 2 hour to construct post. [Face palm if there was one]!
So quickly started to type it all again with what I thought might be all relevant salient points. I couldn't edit the second posting either, got a message saying "You can no longer edit after 10 minutes elapsed"!? It took me that long to read it again.
I see it has nevertheless been read by 138 people so far so hoping for a reply soon.

In a nutshell I honestly hoped for and expected assistance from the police that night, instead I got sanctuary all right but at what price? Answer yet to be determined. Still astonished they can refuse a sample when following the free legal advice given I offered to provide one.

Also now wondering if "special circumstances" might apply to this charge or is that just for DD offences? Can't seem to find an answer to that on this site or in road traffic act link posted in that section. Court date now less than 2 weeks.

 

[Sanctuary]

I cannot say for certain without having reviewed all of the prosecution evidence, however in my experience tiredness would be highly unlikely to be accepted as a reasonable excuse for failing to provide the specimens of breath. With regards to the legal advice, it may not have been a solicitor who advised you, however it will have been an accredited police station representative who is qualified to give legal advice.

You could however, certainly use the issue of tiredness as a mitigating factor in your case. This may well be relevant to the severity of the sentence that is imposed by the Court as if you can demonstrate that you had an honestly held but unreasonable excuse then this would leave you in the lowest sentencing bracket of a 12-16 month disqualification and a Band C fine.

If you are interested in representation then you are welcome to contact my department on 0333 999 7158.

Thank you for that. I have done some research and have requested full disclosure of all my Custody Records including form MGDDA and audio/ video. They have offered to send some of it but are requesting details of my solicitor for the rest. Could you confirm if it is possible to get full disclosure of these sent to me or my chosen representative even if they are not a qualified traffic offence solicitor before I decide, based on what is in the disclosure package, if I would like to use the services of one? Thank you.

 

[Sanctuary]

I cannot say for certain without having reviewed all of the prosecution evidence, however in my experience tiredness would be highly unlikely to be accepted as a reasonable excuse for failing to provide the specimens of breath.

Yes, however I should perhaps have made it a lot clearer in the OP that it was foresight, the future perceived "tiredness can kill" scenario I envisaged as being the reason for the need for guaranteed sanctuary as that appeared to be the only realistic alternative to me being left there to fend for myself for who knows how many more hours when starting from 03.00 am on a Sunday before I could possibly be mobile again and with a need to first source a specialist tyre, and find a working rapid battery charger. There is no longer any phone support for drivers having problems at these out of business hours anymore (used to be until recently) and the failure rate is currently running at 1 in 4!

I should point out the OEM recovery service has had lots of bad press (electric car forums) in terms of time to both arrive at the scene and arrive at the point of delivery. Often having already waited hours, occupants and cars are handed over from one flat bed recovery truck to another at regional service borders. I had never used it before at that time.

In the event, and without any police assistance, mine went extremely well the following day however of course that was no longer in the middle of the night!
So had the police assisted me, and let me make the call or better still had called for recovery themselves I could have had the car and myself collected and been driven home the night before preventing the need for any of this. Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing.
Still wondering if special circumstances apply to this charge?

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

I suspect the reason that the police/cps are asking for details of your solicitor is so that they can send information through to them by secure email, which most law firms now have in place. You can have this information sent through to any solicitor you wish to instruct, they do not have to be a specialist, and if you choose to represent yourself then you can request that any evidence is sent directly to you. That being said, due to the technical nature of the points that you are raising I would advise that a road traffic specialist would be the ideal way to proceed with the case.


You could look to enter a special reasons plea if you wish, although I do not feel that there would be one relevant to these particular circumstances. The main issue I can see with the case is that any argument about recovery times will almost certainly cause the Court/CPS to ask whether you contacted the recovery services. It does not appear that this was the case and the point will then be raised that you have made an assumption about the issues with recovery without ever speaking to anyone. Alongside this you mention that you were very tired at this point and were concerned about your ability to continue driving safely, however you then continued driving a vehicle that had a flat tire, and again do not seem to have made any checks to see if there was a local hotel that you could have stayed at. If your primary concern was a safe place to stay and sleep then I imagine the Court would want a satisfactory answer as to why you had not looked for a hotel instead of driving onto the A40.

With regards to wanting a safe place to stay when arrested by the police, you would very likely have had to explain this to the police during either of the breathalyser procedures for this to be a viable issue. Again, you could have requested that you be taken to a hotel after the procedure rather than back to your vehicle. In my experience the Court will not by sympathetic to the idea that you failed to provide the specimen so that you could stay at the police station overnight.

 

[Sanctuary]

I suspect the reason that the police/cps are asking for details of your solicitor is so that they can send information through to them by secure email, which most law firms now have in place. You can have this information sent through to any solicitor you wish to instruct, they do not have to be a specialist, and if you choose to represent yourself then you can request that any evidence is sent directly to you. That being said, due to the technical nature of the points that you are raising I would advise that a road traffic specialist would be the ideal way to proceed with the case.

Thanks for that, I will action your comments straight away.

You could look to enter a special reasons plea if you wish, although I do not feel that there would be one relevant to these particular circumstances. The main issue I can see with the case is that any argument about recovery times will almost certainly cause the Court/CPS to ask whether you contacted the recovery services. It does not appear that this was the case and the point will then be raised that you have made an assumption about the issues with recovery without ever speaking to anyone.

Ah sorry, I needed to find help somewhere hence driving on to the A40 as my old phone I was having to use had gone flat, never had a car charger for it.

Alongside this you mention that you were very tired at this point and were concerned about your ability to continue driving safely

yes but in the future if stuck for hours with no more sleep with a tyre to source and fix

however you then continued driving a vehicle that had a flat tire, and again do not seem to have made any checks to see if there was a local hotel that you could have stayed at.

I couldn't find one easily without my smart phone but never saw one either and there was nobody around to ask.

If your primary concern was a safe place to stay and sleep then I imagine the Court would want a satisfactory answer as to why you had not looked for a hotel instead of driving onto the A40.

Cost the main one, unusual hour wouldn't be possible where I live, and if I could have hitched a lift after the puncture from a lorry in a layby I could have got home and self recovered the following day as I had a the correct spare wheel and tyre there for just this sort of puncture trap.

With regards to wanting a safe place to stay when arrested by the police, you would very likely have had to explain this to the police during either of the breathalyser procedures for this to be a viable issue.

I certainly did that at both locations.

Again, you could have requested that you be taken to a hotel after the procedure rather than back to your vehicle. In my experience the Court will not by sympathetic to the idea that you failed to provide the specimen so that you could stay at the police station overnight.

Yes that worries me too but it is nevertheless the truth. I was also concerned about partner's car and thought it better if they would look after it if they took me to the station.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

I understand that you have now called and spoken to one of my colleagues about this issue. If there are any further issues you are welcome to contact him or to make further posts.

 

[Sanctuary]

Thanks for the invitation, I received my full custody record yesterday, all 24 pages. On first reading, having described me as co-operative, I note that at least 4 separate named individuals in Heathrow police station have variably described me as either smelling of drink, drunk or intoxicated.

That is despite the BAC calculator results showing I should have been well below the limit with the time elapsed. So I am curious to know if these type of individual (or might collaborative be more appropriate?) comments are common practice everywhere in "failing to produce" cases or maybe just in the possibly better versed metropolitan area?

Am I right to assume these comments will be detrimental to any plea whether guilty or not guilty?

After yesterday's telephone discussion just to confirm please, are reasonable excuse, an honestly held but unreasonable excuse, special circumstances and mitigating circumstances all things which can be used in guilty and not guilty pleas?

I am disappointed that nowhere in 24 pages of the custody record procedure is there any mention that I did offer to provide a sample and by any means whatsoever after being given the legal advice from the duty solicitor to do so. Is that not even worthy of being recorded?

They have sent me another identical copy of the unconditional bail sheet I was handed on release from detention. That is the only document I have ever been given with details of the magistrates court location time and date. Neither the new copy nor previous one handed to me on release has any signatures on it where it says Signed (Person Bailed) just a blank space on both copies. Not sure if that obvious procedural failure could possibly help me?

For the possible benefit of others reading this, I have requested anything the CPS have by way of custody records and audio/visual information relating to my charge and yesterday received an automated email saying they have 10 working days to provide it. Ten working days will be a week after my magistrates court appearance!

 

[Sanctuary]

Got my electronc medical records yesterday. There are multiple references in GP visits back as far as 2006 complaining of tiredness and they are almost all centred on May with the rest mostly late April or Early June.

My GP has recently suggested taking vitamin D supplements through next winter. I looked up vitamin D defficency and it correlates very well with my reported symptoms in my medical records. Symptoms appear or worsen at age 50 becasue you become less able to metabolise vitamin D and the records show so did mine! In addition to tiredness acheing joints and heart weakening, one of the recognised symptoms is coignative impairment. This could explain difficulties making the right decisions, especially when very tired and cold. I made the wrong ones when asked to provide a sample as I now know (I did offer to on advice but apparently too late).

I suppose all this medical history will be deemed irrelevant too, like the fact I offered to provide a sample but that didn't even make it in to 24 pages of my custody records! There is little chance I will have the audio/video proof of that in time.

Still nothing from the CPS but I preparing my own case regardless, I have downloaded nearest weather aftercast from the night and will try to demonstrate that being questioned in just a T-shirt in the open at 3,00am in an 8mph SW wind with a condensation dewpoint and temperature below 6 degrees C when exhausted was not conducive to aiding sensible decision making other than to get warm indoors asap whatever that required!

Even though the bail documents I was given by hand in custody and had a copy of posted since have no signatures on them, I will turn up to court on Monday and ask for duty solicitor and have to take my chances, still unsure what to plead. That might save enough money to buy and Electric bicycle if needed. I will hopefully get a friend to drive me there as it is an early start, rather than have to spend the night before nearby requiring more expense. Any help at this stage in answer to this or my previous unanswered post would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

With regards to the 4 issues you mention in the first of your 2 most recent posts;
i) Mitigation is put forward in a guilty plea to try and keep and sentence down to a minimum
ii) An honestly held but unreasonable excuse if the one of the guidelines for sentence, if the Court feel that this is the reason for the specimen not being provided then this falls into the lowest sentencing bracket.
iii) Special reasons arguments are still a guilty plea, but if successful can avoid the imposition of a disqualification.
iv) If you are to successfully plead not guilty then you have to demonstrate that you had a reasonable excuse for failing to provide the specimens. Please note that this is e legal definition of reasonable excuse.

If you had agreed to provide the specimens of breath after initially refusing then this should be recorded in either the police statements or the custody records. Even if this has not been done then you can still put this forward to the Court yourself. I'm afraid that a lack of signature on the charge sheet will not be sufficient to raise a technical defence to the charge.

I agree that the way the police dealt with you at the roadside was not correct, however this was not the case at the station as you were no longer in the open elements when the actual offence occurred. I would also echo my colleagues advice that if you are pleading guilty, any plea of mitigation should be as succinct as possible, the Court will not want to review pages and pages of medical records.

 

[Sanctuary]

OK, that is a lot clearer thanks. So i) ii) & iii) are all related to guilty pleas and can't be used in a not guilty plea iv). To be found not guilty requires a "reasonable excuse" defense to succeed and in my situation (a precedent?) it would be difficult if not impossible for me to succeed on the grounds of having a "reasonable excuse" without specialist legal representation and access to the £700 Wilkinson's case law reference book your colleague Alex mentioned, in order to check to see if there is any precedent in seeking sanctuary from cold and tiredness and, whilst experiencing those conditions, an unwillingness on my part to risk being left abandoned with the car on the roadside at 3.00am as I envisaged (rightly or wrongly) would likely be the case as no alternatives were offered by the police to either arrest or release.

If I have got that right then it looks like iii) pleading guilty with "special reasons" is the best realistic outcome I can hope for and should pursue.

If it is possible to confirm that as being as the most suitable way forward I will now prepare for that approach unless I hear of any reason not to.


Thanks again for the advice, it is truly appreciated. The outcome will be posted here for all to see.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

I'm afraid that I am not in a position to advise you about how you should plead to the charge. I understand that you have a significant amount of documentation that has now been provided to you and I have not had sight of this. Therefore I would not want to say that you should plead guilty to the offence when there may be a viable not guilty plea based upon a procedural error in the case, or indeed vice versa.

 

[Sanctuary]

Promised to tell what happened so here it is warts and all;

I discovered an envelope from the CPS at home late Saturday afternoon 6 June, there had been no email saying it had been sent. It had been posted 2nd class on the 4th. Lucky I hadn't already departed to stay with friends nearer court 80 miles away so took it with me to read.

I noticed recorded in CPS documents my "No" answer to a question I was asked at the custody desk if I was dependent on Solvents. I thought had they asked had I been exposed to solvents the answer would have been Yes so I looked up the symptoms of that particular organic solvent which I had in the car boot from the job done the day before and realised this alone could explain the tiredness, confusion and intoxication symptoms I had that night.

With little time to prepare and little sleep again I arrived at court on time despite everyone being required to arrive for the same time of 09.30am and local roads still gridlocked. My name no where to be found on court list for the day! Had to go to office window and they found my details and added me, I wonder if they thought I wouldn't turn up due to unsigned bail form?
I met Usher and asked to see Duty Solicitor. She spent the next 3 hours apologising saying she didn't know where she was!

I finally got to speak with her about at 12.30pm for 7 minutes 24 seconds exactly and another 8 minutes was my unanswered question monologue whilst she was filling in forms.
She told me automatic custodial sentence then corrected herself to disqualification and when I asked about guilty plea with special circumstances she said "You will still be a disqualified". I recorded the whole meeting in clear audio on my phone.

I have a new date for the hearing 29th July, I understand I can change my plea at any time with any tariff discounts reduced the longer I leave it.

I also understand that the onus is on me to prove that I was suffering the effects of poisoning and not for the prosecution to disprove it so I have a new line of research to do in order to find a way to do that asap. Fortunately there is at least one witness who knew I had that chemical in the car.

I hope that the fact that I offered at the time to provide a blood or urine sample may help me here as the fact they refused to take one from me may have been prejudicial to my case by preventing me from supplying clear evidence of poisoning by organic solvents at the time. I need my audio visual evidence to demonstrate clearly that they refused a sample now and the fact is there is no mention of me having offered to provide a sample in either the custody records or CPS paperwork.

So I have now put in a not guilty plea.
I look forward to your comments on the above.

 

[Sanctuary]

Caught out editing above post again with the 10 minute trap.
The container of the solvent was damaged so I had taped over it, it dissolved the glue on the tape and the tape shriveled up and fell off allowing solvent to vent all the time I was sat in car with windows closed at electric vehicle charge point whilst recharging. Symptoms of poisoning correlate with mine exactly and can be confused with drunkenness.

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

Again I am afraid that we are now largely past the point where I can accurately advise on much of what you are posting. If you are running a trial on this basis then it is something that you will have to look into with the benefit of all of the papers and your own knowledge of what has occurred at the time of the alleged offence.

I can say however that if you are running a defence based upon a medical issue that has arisen regarding the solvent in the car, then you would be well served by instructing an expert to look into this matter. Without an expert's report you will likely struggle to enter the evidence to the necessary standard, simply providing material found online is unlikely to be enough.

 

[Sanctuary]

Thanks again.

I asked the man sat in front of the 3 magistrates (adjudicator?) who seemed to be running the court procedure and who spoke to both the "Duty" Solicitor and me, and who it was that explained that I needed to provide evidence of chemical poisoning, whether I needed a specialist road traffic solicitor and he said emphatically "No you can use any solicitor of your choice", so I understand this now hinges on me providing medical/scientific evidence beyond reasonable doubt.

I will try again to see if I can get legal aid, the reason I think I was refused before was that they said I needed a specialist road traffic solicitor which was unavailable through them.

FYI have already made contact with a solicitor listed in the solicitors directory on this site and have to say I was totally unimpressed with the lack of comprehension and illiteracy of the half hearted replies I have received. Not at all professional.

Please do let me know if you are aware of anyone else who could provide a technical report on solvent poisoning.

Thank You

 

[SeanJoyceStephensons]

If you are looking for an expert then I would advise searching for a forensic toxicologist in your area. With regards to legal aid, I am aware that most road traffic specialists are reluctant to take on cases with this funding. However, there normally has to be a risk of a custodial sentence for legal aid to be granted in any event. If this is something you are interested in pursuing then I advise contacting a local criminal solicitor and asking if they can make the application for you.

 

[Sanctuary]

Had 3 numbers of specialist local solicitors supplied to me by Legal Aid, tried 2 of 3 to see if they might help very politely, both wanted £90 for a consultation just to find out if I was eligible for legal aid. Third one hasn't called me back. I am also waiting for a call back from a forensic toxicologist, the first one I spoke to only works for the prosecution!

However I have some more news, here is a very interesting thing found on the home page of another Traffic Solicitor's site;
What are the defences?


The offence of failing to provide a specimen includes provision that this should be without “reasonable excuse”. If a reasonable excuse is raised for not providing a specimen then you should be acquitted of the offence unless the prosecution can prove (beyond reasonable doubt) that no reasonable excuse existed

That clearly states the prosecution have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that no reasonable excuse existed. This nevertheless is in direct contradiction to the outline statement of events I made in my former post on 06/09/15 about what happened at the hearing, statement copied below in red;

I also understand that the onus is on me to prove that I was suffering the effects of poisoning and not for the prosecution to disprove it so I have a new line of research to do in order to find a way to do that asap.

The court clerk took great pains to ensure I was clear on his interpretation of the above too!

So I just called the phone number attached to question the validity of the traffic solicitor's site remarks in blue above and the gentleman who answered the phone said that [referring to remarks in red above above ] would have been said by the court clerk and they don't know what they are talking about". That came from the senior partner as he described himself and who answered the phone! He did say they are busy doing a TV documentary today on just these sort of issues at his location so that might explain him answering the phone as I would have expected a receptionist to answer.

Does anyone left working in Britain have a clue what they are doing these days? It is really hard to know who to believe with such blatant and important contradictions CPS can make any number of mistakes too but I have to get all this right!