Mr EI

Mr EI was convicted in December 2012 of production of cannabis following a guilty plea. He received a sentence of eight months’ imprisonment.

Mr EI had no right of appeal. The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in September 2013.

Mr EI, a Vietnamese national, had been arrested after police raided a Lincolnshire cannabis factory and Mr EI provided a false name and date of birth. Mr EI’s real identity and date of birth were traced from his fingerprints but no enquiries were made by the police, Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or defence solicitors.

Had these enquiries been made, it would have been found that Mr EI was the subject of a “reasonable grounds” trafficking decision by the UK Border Agency and had previously been recognised by the CPS in a different region as a likely victim of trafficking both to and within the UK.

During review, the CCRC considered new evidence that indicated that Mr EI was a credible child victim of trafficking and was compelled to commit offences as a direct result of his trafficked situation.

The CCRC also concluded there was a real possibility that the Crown Court would find that it was an abuse of process to prosecute Mr EI without due regard to the UK’s obligations under Article 26 of the Trafficking Convention (now Article 8 of the EU Directive 2011/36/EU).

Consequently, there was a real possibility the Crown Court would allow Mr EI to vacate his guilty plea and, if Mr EI was re-prosecuted, stay the proceedings or otherwise not uphold the conviction.

The CCRC referred the conviction in June 2014.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction in August 2014.