Tony Bennett writes

Theft of 29 road signs from McAlpine (returned to McAlpine in October but with the metric distances painted over) -- Guilty.... 50 hours' Community Service Order.

Criminal damage to one road sign (covering over just the metric distance with paint) -- Guilty.... also 50 hours' Community Service Order.

Both sentences to run concurrently; ie. 50 hours in total to serve.

Prosecution application for costs in the sum of £300 -- granted in full.

Compensation to McAlpine for having to order 29 new signs in yards instead of metres -- not granted as both McAlpine and the Crown Prosecution Service had forgotten to complete a compensation claim form.
The Judge said he was very disappointed about this and would have ordered full compensation at £40 per sign (£1,160) if he could have done.

The Community Service Order is to be carried out under the directions of Essex Probation Service.

APPEAL
An appeal to the Crown Court has been lodged, where it will be heard, probably between July and October, by a Crown Court Judge and two lay magistrates.

The Costs Order is suspended pending the outcome of the appeal.

However, the Community Service Order is not suspended, leaving open the possibility that the Community Service Order may have been fully served before the appeal is heard.

VICTIM
During an adjournment for the Kent Probation Service to assess if a Community Service Order would be an appropriate one to make, I was asked various questions by the Officer.

The first was: "Do you accept responsibility for your actions", to which I replied: "Yes, I always have done".

The second was: "Are you aware of the effects of your actions on the victim?" I replied: "Yes, they had to order a new set signs in yards which they should have done when their illegal use of metric signs was first reported over four and a half years ago, they're now using legal signs in miles and yards on all their pipeline projects, and neither of these things would have happened at all but for my having removed those signs from the roadside when I did".

He moved rapidly on to the next question.

VANDALISM
In giving sentence, District Judge Kelly said: "As far as I'm concerned, what you did was the equivalent of vandalism. How we normally deal with vandals is to get them to pay back to the community for the nuisance they have caused and that's what we will do with you".

JUDGEMENT
Reading his judgement (available from me by hard copy and soon to be published on the bwmaonline.com website), the Judge said that illegal metric signs 'are matters for the Police and the appropriate authorities...[no-one] has the right or authority to take the law into his own hands and become an 'imperial vigilante'".

What he did not say is what one should do if the 'appropriate authorities' totally refuse to take any action at all to deal with persistent breaches of Parliament's Regulations.

CUSTODIAL SENTENCE
Note:  A Community Service Order may only be made if the Court considers that the offence was so serious that a custodial sentence would otherwise be appropriate.

ALTERNATIVES TO DIRECT ACTION?
In answer to questions about what alternative route could have been used to deal with Transco's continuing erection of metric signs over a period of over four years, the answer is that the only alternative I am aware of is to bring mandamus proceedings, an injunctive remedy, in the High Court.

If successful, the Court would make a 'mandaumus' order requiring Transco to conform with the relevant Traffic Signs Regulations. That would take some considerable time to come on for hearing, going to the back of the queue behind urgent family and other urgent injunction proceedings, and would be prohibitively expensive, costing a minimum of thousands of pounds.

THANKS
It only remains for me to thank wholeheartedly those who have supported me during this controversial case, especially those who gave practical support, and of course my Solicitor Mark Tavender of Ronald Prior and Co. and my Barrister Michael Shrimpton.

Tony Bennett 66 Chippingfield HARLOW Essex  CM17 0DJ

Telephone/Fax :  01279 635789