Bill of Rights and Illegal fines
February 13, 2005 by Ken
Filed under The Best of the Rest
I find this fascinating, it rather goes to the heart of the basic freedoms we have always enjoyed in this country and which are being infringed by governments who feel they can remove our rights simply because they gained more votes at an election than another political party.
I have heard that several motorist have refused to pay fixed penalty notices, because they claim that the Bill of Rights 1689 is fundamental to British law and says that no one may be fined or financially penalised unless they have been convicted by a court. Lord Justice Laws pronounced that there were certain “constitutional statutes”, such as the Bill of Rights, which cannot be set aside by subsequent legislation unless this is specifically stated. 1991 Road Traffic Act could not implicitly repeal the relevant clause of the Bill of Rights, because, as Laws stated, this was a “constitutional statute”. Either the automatic penalty system was illegal; or Laws was wrong, in which case the Metric Martyrs should not have been found guilty.
Mr de Crittenden refused to pay his fine unless Sandwell took him to court. Two years later they have still not done so. If we all demanded our rights to be found guilty before accepting punishment, the courts would grind to a standstill, after all why should we allow someone to simply declare we are guilty and deciding to punish us without offering any evidence to substantiate that claim.
Telegraph | News | Christopher Booker’s notebook:
“The dilemma facing councils is stark. If they obey the law as it stands, they cannot impose parking tickets on hundreds of thousands of motorists without taking them to court. But if they do so, the court system would rapidly collapse. Furthermore the same applies to all the other official bodies that have jumped on the ‘fixed penalty’ bandwagon, such as the Inland Revenue, which imposes an automatic £100 penalty for a late tax return.”
Similar Posts:
- They are not fines – so thats fine
- So the Bill of Rights is an ancient act that has no relevance?
- A Pandoras Box of Fixed Penalties
- Bill of Rights Circular sent to all Local Authorities
- A Whole New Can of Worms
- Parking Bill of Rights, Magna Carta and the Human Rights Act
- Reversing the Burden of Proof
- Enforcing our rights
