Rejected petition Scrap mandatory court charges which leave poor people destitute.

Rejected on 2 October 2015

Mandatory court charges take no account of a person's ability to pay. Magistrate, Nigel Allcoat, resigned after paying £40 towards an asylum seeker's fine. He said, "“What can someone do in that situation, when you tell them they need to find £180 or they will go to prison, but they cannot work?”

The Guardian (http://tinyurl.com/q88wdyh) recently reported the case of a Magistrate who was forced to levy a mandatory court charge and thought it was so unfair he ended up contributing £40 towards it himself. Mandatory court charges are levied at the same rate without regard if a person can pay - they hit the poorest worst, with asylum seekers who aren't allowed to work and homeless people particularly affected. Read this blog on the homeless charity Crisis' website: http://tinyurl.com/pn8dhd6

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https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/106789

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