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Ms K

Published:

Ms K was convicted in April 2006 of failure to produce a satisfactory immigration document and received a sentence of four months’ imprisonment.

The CCRC received an application for review of the conviction in March 2013.

Ms K, a Somalian national, had entered the UK without a passport and was stopped at Stanstead Airport. She subsequently pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to an offence under the Immigration and Asylum (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004.

Following review, the CCRC concluded that Ms K had a statutory defence to the charge on which she was convicted, namely “reasonable excuse” for failing to produce a valid immigration document.

Somalia had not had a passport issuing authority since 1991 and in any event, the UK had not recognised Somali passports since 2003.

Ms K was not adequately advised about this defence. Following conviction, Ms K was granted asylum status.

The CCRC considered that Ms K had therefore been deprived of a good defence in law that quite probably would have succeeded, in turn raising a real possibility that the Crown Court would find that a clear injustice had been shown to have occurred and would not uphold the conviction despite Mr K’s plea of guilty.

The CCRC referred the conviction in April 2014.

The Crown Court quashed the conviction in July 2014.