Ms Q

Ms Q was convicted in December 2007 of entering the United Kingdom without a passport and received a sentence of 16 weeks’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in July 2017.

Ms Q, an Iranian national, had made a claim for asylum at Heathrow Airport immediately on arrival in the UK but did not have a passport or other form of immigration document. She was arrested and, on legal advice, pleaded guilty to an offence under the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004.

In May 2008 the Home Office refused Ms Q’s application for asylum. In July 2008, the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal allowed an appeal on that decision and found that if Ms Q was returned to Iran, she was at risk of persecution and her life would be in danger.

Ms Q had been accused of having had an adulterous relationship in Iran, and she feared that if returned she would be killed either by her husband or her father. Alternatively, if accused by the Iranian authorities of adultery, she feared being stoned.

She was subsequently granted Humanitarian Protection by the Home Office with five years’ leave to remain in the UK. In 2013 she was granted indefinite leave to remain.

Following review, the CCRC concluded that Ms Q had a statutory defence to the charge on which she was convicted available to her under section 2 of the 2004 Act, namely a “reasonable excuse” for not producing a genuine immigration document.

The legal advice provided to Ms Q deprived her of an available defence. On the evidence available it was probable that the defence would have succeeded.

Consequently, there was a real possibility that the Crown Court would set aside Ms Q’s guilty plea and conclude that in all the circumstances it should not uphold the conviction.

The CCRC referred the conviction in August 2018.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction in November 2018.