I Hope This is Not True. Rape and Murder Victims Who Were Speeders To Have Compensation Cut.

[TheBigotBasher]

I really do hope that this is just a Departmental Head or a Junior Minister floating an idea. Or even The Hate on Sunday just making it up. If it is true this is Aavery very bad idea. This story even as a proposal should earn that proponent a place on Keith Olbermann's Worst "Person in the World" slot.


According <a to the Mail on Sunday some complete bastard in this "no cuts" Labour Government wants to cut serious criminal injuries compensation payments for those convicted of minor offences, to include speeding.



The Mail On Sunday goes on to report

In 2006, 857,000 fines averaging £142 were imposed in magistrates courts for driving offences.

They included 152,461 for speeding (average fine £121), 26,043 for failing to obey traffic directions (£95), 23,374 for careless driving (£159), 5,820 for parking offences (£65), 5,009 for lighting offences (£60) and 666 for noise nuisance (£66).

In the cases of murder victims, the rule applies to the deceased and any applicant for compensation.

So the amount paid to the parent of a murdered child will be reduced if the parent has been fined for a motoring offence in the past five years.

If the murder victim had been fined for a motoring offence, the amount payable to his children would also be reduced by the same proportion.

That reduction would be between £1,100 and £1,650, depending on how long had passed since the conviction, with a further deduction of between ten and 15 per cent from the sum paid to cover the victim's funeral expenses.

Whichever idiot the so called Ministry of Justice got to speak on behalf of the Government just made it sound even worse.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Well, they've got that quote from a Ministry of Justice spokesman

and there seems to be no denial. Either the Mail has made it up out of thin air (and even for them that'd be going a bit far), or it's basically true.

In which case, it is a dumb and outrageous idea. People get the relevant penalty for speeding. It does not show a truly bad 'character' - millions of people have had speeding convictions, and if it was that bad, then the penalties would be set higher.

I'm surprised this hasn't been picked up more by the rest of the media.

[TheBigotBasher]

2. I'm hoping that this is some Junior Minister or Departmental Head

floating the idea to The MOS on the basis of look what we are doing to the evil uninsured drivers and failing. Labour have floated lots of ideas through the Mail and Sun (90 days). It does not always work.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. It reads more like the decision has been made, the Tories noticed it

and went to the Mail on Sunday with it, and they then asked the Ministry of Justice who confirmed it.

The Conservatives claim the cut is hidden in the small print of the CICA's business plan. They say it shows that its budget for compensation payments to victims of violent crime will fall by £5million this year, rolling on with a further £15million next year - a total of £25million in two years.

Read more: http://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-1200633/5m-motorists-crime-victim-compensation-slashed.html#ixzz0Ljr9NANz

and the the quotes from the MoJ spokesman.

[TheBigotBasher]

4. Doesn't the business plan require Ministerial approval?

Wouldn't such a change also require at least a Statutory Instrument?

[LeftishBrit]

5. Revolting, and I would say quite legally unsound

If you want to discourage speeding, then increase the direct penalties for it; don't drag it into something irrelevant. I hope that if this is attempted, the courts will strike it down.

Of course this *is* the Mail; but it could well be true.

[Kingdom1979]

7. I am skeptical from anything in the Mail

I think if this was a serious proposal it would of got much more mainstream coverage

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. ...the government is paying compensation to murder victims?