Suspended court staff charged with fraud

One of these was the Court Clerk during the Metric Martyrs' case in Sunderland and advised that the sitting bench of three lay magistrates wasn't able to hear the case. They were dismissed and District Judge Morgan was parachuted in from Walsall.


The Journal
Aug 23 2006
By Daniel Cochlin,

Three senior court employees were last night charged over allegations of fraud at Sunderland Magistrates' Court.

The trio, chief clerk Stephen Peter Rowbottom, principal administration manager Pamela Davison, and former deputy clerk Edmund Cleary, were suspended from their posts in March.
And following the five-month alleged fraud probe by the Department For Constitutional Affairs - the Government body which manages the country's magistrates - the trio were last night charged to appear in court.
Rowbottom, 49, of Morpeth, and Cleary, 58, of Washington, have been accused with misconduct in public office.
Crown Prosecution Service guidelines for magistrates say this charge refers to public officers who willfully neglect to perform their duty or willfully misconduct themselves, amounting to an abuse of the public's trust.

Davison, 54, of Murton, County Durham, has been charged with two counts of misconduct in public office, one of false accounting and three of "pushing false information".
None of the three was available for comment last night.

FULL STORY

Three top court officials charged
Five month investigation into fraud allegations
by Daniel Cochlin

Three senior court employees - including the chief clerk to the justices - were charged last night over allegations of fraud at Sunderland Magistrates' Court.

The trio, chief clerk Stephen Peter Rowbottom, principal administration manager Pamela Davison and former deputy clerk Edmund Cleary, were suspended from their posts in March.

And following the five-month investigation, the trio were last night charged with a string of offences. The three are believed to have been charged as part of an alleged fraud probe carried out by the Department For Constitutional Affairs - the Government body which manages the country's magistrates.

Rowbottom, 49, of Morpeth, and Cleary, 58, of Washington, have been accused of misconduct in public office.

Crown Prosecution Service guidelines for magistrates say this charge refers to public officers who willfully neglect to perform their duty or willfully misconduct themselves, amounting to an abuse of the public's trust. Davison, 54, of Murton, County Durham, has been charged with two counts of misconduct in public office, one of false accounting and three of "pushing false information".

All three have been bailed and will be appearing at court next month, although it is understood they will not be appearing at a court in the North-East because of their positions.

Rowbottom took over as Chief Clerk to the Justices when predecessor David Yorke left more than five years ago and Cleary, previously second in command, advised Sunderland magistrates from the early 1990s until he retired, following his suspension.

The clerk is usually a barrister or solicitor appointed to assist magistrates in court. Their duties include advising the magistrates on sentencing, and dealing with payments to the court. A Northumbria Police spokeswoman confirmed the three had been charged last night, and said they had been bailed to appear in court.

A spokeswoman for the Department For Constitutional Affairs refused to go into details about the allegations, saying only that they had been charged after an investigation into a "possible fraud".

Last night Rowbottom and Davison were unavailable for comment. Cleary declined to comment.