.

Julie Collins
Courts and Tribunals Manager,
Humber & South Yorkshire

HM Courts &
Tribunals Servicp

A Watts
Clerk to the Justices
Grimsby Magistrates' Court
Victoria Street
Grimsby
DN31 1NH
OX

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T 01472 320444
F 01472320440

_"lcolnshire
www.justice.gov.uk

Our ref: GT

14th September 2016

Dear Mr (
Re: Complaint Letter dated 11 August 2016
I have now had the opportunity to read through the documentation you have sent to the
Customer Services department, including the additional pages sent on 5 September
2016.
The two main matters you complain about are the decision of the court to issue a
liability order against you in council tax enforcement proceedings and the decision of
the court to convict you of a public order offence.
While I can understand your frustration I am unable to intervene in or change the
outcome of your cases. This is because judicial decisions have been made and judges
are independent of the administration of HM Courts and Tribunals Service. If you
consider the decisions to be wrong then you should consider appealing the decisions.
If you are aggrieved by the way the judge has behaved towards you can lodge a
complaint with the relevant office.
You are clearly already aware of these avenues as you mention in your
correspondence to North East Lincolnshire Council in October 2015 that you have
appealed a previous decision to issue a liability order against you. You also made a
complaint about the District Judge to the Judicial Complaints Investigations Office in
November 2015.
In respect of your conviction at this court on 15 December 2015 you were told that you
could appeal to the Crown Court and you were clearly informed about the time limits for
that appeal.
You chose not to attend court for your trial on 15 December 2015, saying in effect that
you did not consider District Judge Curtis to be a fit and proper person to hear your trial
and that the court as a whole should be investigated for complicity in defrauding the
public. It was because of this that the court felt that it was not appropriate to reopen
your case under section 142 of the Magistrates' Courts Act 1980.

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You submitted your appeal against conviction in April 2016 but your application to
appeal out of time was refused by the Crown Court judge. I cannot comment on that as
once again that was a decision made by a judge.

The court set up a hearing for you to attend to apply to take out a private prosecution
against a member of the police force but you decided not to attend and the matter was
dealt with by a Deputy District Judge in your absence.
Much of your documentation concerns complaints made to both the police and North
East Lincolnshire Council and I am not able to comment on that.
In conclusion having considered your complaint I do not accept that the court has failed
to address the issues you have raised in the past. I do not accept that the court has, in
your words, 'fobbed off' criminal accusations made by you against both the court and
the District Judge. The court has informed you of the different routes of appeal and
responded to your queries to the best of its ability.
If you are not content with this response you can escalate your complaint to my line
manager, Mrs Jodie Morris.

J.,r/).~

{IJ
Y.o.urs sinCe~reIY,
Graeme Townell
Legal Team Manager
Grimsby Magistrates' Court

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