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England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions >> Environment Agency, R (on the application of) v Drake [2009] EWHC 1344 (Admin) (06 May 2009) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Admin/2009/1344.html Cite as: [2009] EWHC 1344 (Admin), [2010] Env LR 3 |
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QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
THE ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
Strand London WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
(SITTING AS A HIGH COURT JUDGE)
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THE QUEEN ON THE APPLICATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AGENCY | Claimant | |
v | ||
JOHN CHRISTOPHER DRAKE | Defendant |
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The Defendant did not appear and was not represented
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Crown Copyright ©
"Even if [the defence] had taken their own samples on the day and from the same place as the prosecution there would still have been clear evidential problems in reconciling the samples."
"If not being able to establish on the basis of samples taken by the appellant, and upon which they originally intended to rely, the source and extent of the alleged pollution was not a serious prejudice it is difficult to know what is."
For all those reasons, I have come to the conclusion that the District Judge fell into error when deciding, as he did, that there was serious prejudice to the defendant by reason of the loss and/or destruction of the samples.