Judge hits out over handling of raid case
A judge has accused the Crown Prosecution Service of a "serious error of judgement" in its handling of a West Midland case.
A judge has accused the Crown Prosecution Service of a "serious error of judgement" in its handling of a West Midland case.
Two men spotted in the early hours 50 yards from the scene of the raid with property belonging to the disabled victim were only accused of handling stolen goods because they said they had 'found' the items while on a bike ride. Judge Nicholas Webb felt the pair should have been charged with burglary and taken to trial for a jury to consider the evidence.
One of them was heard to shout to the other after their arrest: 'Tell them that we found it,' Wolverhampton Crown Court heard on Wednesday.
Judge Webb said: "In my view there has been a serious error of judgement. There is the world of difference between burgling the house of a disabled lady in the middle of the night and handling stolen property."
Police were alerted after Colin Aulton and Michael Huntington were spotted apparently hiding property at Wootton Avenue, Wednesfield at around 4.30am on August 4. They both rode off on bikes when officers arrived to find a stash of jewellery, electrical goods and cosmetics at the scene.
The two suspects were later caught in possession of jewellery, foreign currency, mobile phones and a bottle of tablets with a label on it that made clear the woman patient lived near to the spot where the men had been seen. Police woke the woman and she discovered her home had been burgled. The missing property matched that found earlier.
Aulton, 29, of Bramford Road, Penn Fields and Huntington, 24, of Lawford Avenue, Wednesfield, claimed to have found the property and pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods. They were each given 18 month supervision orders and ordered to pay £150 costs. Judge Webb told them: "The circumstances in which you were found were suspicious. But I have to accept that this was theft by finding."
Crown Prosecution Service spokesman Vinny Bolina today defended their handling of the case, adding: "No forensic material was found at the scene linking the two suspects to the address from which the property had been taken and so we had no option but to drop the charge of burglary."
