BAILII is celebrating 24 years of free online access to the law! Would you consider making a contribution?
No donation is too small. If every visitor before 31 December gives just £1, it will have a significant impact on BAILII's ability to continue providing free access to the law.
Thank you very much for your support!
[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback] | ||
England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
||
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> Pearce & Anor, R (on the application of) v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis & Anor [2013] EWCA Civ 866 (18 July 2013) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2013/866.html Cite as: [2013] EWCA Civ 866 |
[New search] [Printable RTF version] [Help]
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION, DIVISIONAL COURT
REF: CO7183/2011
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
||
B e f o r e :
Lord Justice Patten
and
Lord Justice Fulford
____________________
THE QUEEN (on the application of) PEARCE & ANR |
Appellants |
|
- and - |
||
COMMISSIONER OF POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS & ANR |
Respondents |
____________________
Mr Sam Grodzinski QC and Mr Mark Summers (instructed by Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, Director of Legal Services) for the Respondents
Hearing date : 10 June 2013
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
Lord Justice Maurice Kay :
The facts
"By now, the intelligence cell had identified a number of premises being used as squats, and I was genuinely concerned that one or more of these squats could be housing individuals with intent to commit criminal acts against the Royal Wedding. However, I was not minded to take action against them without a sound legal basis and Bronze Crime, Detective Chief Superintendent Matthew Horne, was able to satisfy me that substantive criminal offences had been identified at each of the squats and that warrants could legitimately by applied for to enter those premises. The intention was not to stop any individuals or groups from engaging in protest, but to prevent any criminal activity or unlawful disruption of the Royal Wedding."
" … I had a genuine fear that there were people in the premises we had identified who would attempt to disrupt the wedding if they could. However, I know that it is extremely difficult to prove a person's intent and that we would not necessarily find material evidence in any of the premises that would give us sufficient to charge them immediately. The likelihood was that most individuals would have to be bailed which, if we entered the premises too early, would mean many of them being released to be free to cause problems on the day of the wedding if that was indeed their intention. It was important, therefore, to time any entries or arrests on these premises so that, as far as possible, individuals could be lawfully detained during the time of the wedding ceremony."
" … Bronze Crime had fully briefed me on all the squats and informed me that Magistrates had issued warrants for all those premises. From his observations and the research that had been done, there was no evidence linking them to disruption of the wedding, but the only way to find out would be to enter the premises and speak to the individuals inside. Given that criminal offences had been identified at all premises and that we had a lawful basis supported by warrants to enter, I gave authority for the warrants to be executed."
" … I made the decision to instigate the action against the various premises. This was based on the facts presented to me by the investigating officers, i.e. that they suspected criminal activity at the various premises, and the fact that the premises were being used by people who were likely to be planning or involved in criminal activity on the day of the royal wedding. I made the decision to take the action before the royal wedding, (to bring forward police action), which I believed would have the added benefit of making the royal wedding day less likely to be subject to criminal activity. This I believed was a proportionate step in preventing crime whilst undertaking our other primary responsibility of investigating crime and arresting offenders if crime was committed."
" … At all premises, the lengthy task of thoroughly searching, investigating and interviewing those present was only now beginning. My initial reaction was that no conspiracy had been uncovered inasmuch as at none of the premises had we found plans, weapons or other paraphernalia that was obviously intended to be used on the day of the wedding to cause disruption or damage. This was an obvious relief to me, but did not mean that some of those present did not have that intent. I now awaited a thorough investigation from Bronze Crime and his team as to what offences had been committed and what the intentions of those individuals present were."
"Flyers for the anti-monarchy Soho Square event were found at Camberwell but no conspiracy has been uncovered. I have issued a press release that says the raids were intelligence led, crime operations that were brought forward because of fears about the wedding".
The law
"(1) A warrant to enter and search premises may be executed by any constable.
…
(3) Entry and search under a warrant must be within [three months] from the date of its issue.
…
(8) A search under a warrant may only be a search to the extent required for the purpose for which the warrant was issued."
"In my judgment, therefore, it would be wrong to construe the words in section 93H(1) 'an investigation into whether any person has benefited from any criminal conduct' for all the world as if they were synonymous with 'an investigation into whether any conduct from which a person has benefitted was criminal, effectively the construction for which [counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions] contends."
"… the question to be asked is this: What is the dominant purpose of the application? Is it for criminal investigation purposes – to determine whether an offence has been committed and, if so, to provide evidence of that offence – or is it to determine, in respect of criminal offending – although not necessarily a specific offence which the prosecution already has reasonable grounds for believing (rather than merely suspecting) has been committed – whether, and, if so, to what extent, someone has benefitted from it, or the whereabouts of the proceeds."
"I would make two observations … The first is that if the true construction of section 93H be the one which I have suggested, then I consider that in the great majority of cases the Circuit Judge will not be faced with a situation where it appears that the police are actuated both by the purpose of investigating the proceeds of criminal conduct and by the purpose of investigating the commission of an offence, and that the judge will only have to consider whether he is satisfied (in addition to the matter certified in section 93H(4)) that the purpose of the application is to investigate the proceeds of criminal conduct. Secondly, in my opinion the nature of the dominant purpose test is well stated in Wade and Forsyth on Administrative Law, 7th edition, (1994), page 436:
'Sometimes an Act may serve two or more purposes, some authorised and some not, and it may be a question whether the public authority may kill two birds with one stone. The general rule is that its action will be lawful provided that the permitted purpose is the true and dominant purpose behind the Act, even though some secondary or incidental advantage may be gained for some purpose which is outside the authority's powers. There is a clear distinction between this situation and its opposite where the permitted purpose is a mere pretext and a dominant purpose is ultra vires.
In those cases where consideration may have to be given to the distinction between the two purposes, or where it may appear that the two purposes may co-exist (an example being where the police wish to investigate a case of living on the earnings of a prostitute), I think that there will be little practical difference between applying the test adopted by Simon Brown LJ and applying the test propounded [counsel for the Director of Public Prosecutions], but if a difference were to result, I consider it to be clear that the dominant purpose test is the appropriate one to apply."
There being no significant dispute about the law in the present case, I need say no more about it at this stage.
The parameters of this case
The case for the appellants
Discussion
"There can be no doubt that the attention given to the Camberwell squats in the first place and the subsequent decisions to apply for and execute search warrants at the premises, including the timing of the searches, were heavily influenced by a concern to prevent disruption of the Royal Wedding. But it does not follow that the prevention of disruption of the Royal Wedding, rather than a search for stolen goods, was the dominant purpose of the police in executing the warrants, ie in exercising the powers of search conferred by the warrant … So there were lawful warrants, granted on 27 and 28 April, authorising searches of the premises. It is very difficult to see how the execution of those warrants on 28 April by carrying out the searches authorised by the warrants can have been vitiated by the existence of an ulterior dominant purpose that did not impinge on the validity of the warrants themselves."
"235 … The police seized substantial quantities of computer equipment falling within the description of goods for which the search was authorised.
243 … None of the witnesses say that the officers searched for material outside the scope of the warrants. Most of the articles seized, namely the computer equipment, fell clearly within their scope. The seizure of the Zombie Wedding flyers is entirely consistent with the exercise of the powers conferred by s.19 and does not begin to show that the search extended to material outside the scope of the warrants: an officer was entitled to seize the flyers pursuant to s.19 if he came across them on the premises while searching for articles within the scope of the warrants."
The reference to section 19 is a reference to section 19(3)(a) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act and the principle that officers are not required to adopt "tunnel vision" when carrying out authorised searches: R v Chesterfield Justices, ex parte Bramley [2000] QB 576, 584F, per Kennedy LJ.
Conclusion
Lord Justice Patten:
Lord Justice Fulford: