Wednesday 8 February 2012

They Don’t Like To Turn On Their Own…

A magistrate from East Lancashire convicted of a £360,000 mortgage fraud has walked free from court.

Judge Christopher Cornwall said he was satisfied that Shanaz Hussain had acted ‘wholly uncharacteristically’, during a bitter divorce, when she forged her husband’s signature on several key documents.
Except….that wasn’t all she forged, was it?
A jury was told that not only did Hussain forge her former husband’s signatures on a financial declaration and Land Registry documents but she had also falsely signed the name of a Blackburn solicitor as a witness.
Whoops!
… the judge ruled that the failure of her 20-year marriage, and an ‘acrimonious divorce’ was the explanation for her behaviour.
And he said that the public interest would not be served by sending Hussain, who is no longer a magistrate, directly to prison.
Chorus of ‘Oh yes it bloody would!’ from the public…
Last night the Office for Judicial Complaints confirmed that Hussain, who served on the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale bench for six years, was no longer a magistrate.
And I hope someone’s looking very closely at any sentences she might have passed on fraud cases in those six years…

7 comments:

Captain Haddock said...

Given the apparent recent blinkering of the dead tree press, I'm hardly surprised that there are no comments to accompany the original article ..

The clues to this otherwise, inexplicable court decision, I believe, lie in the fact that its that particular part of Lancashire .. and in the name of the defendant ..

I think we might have seen an entirely different outcome, had the defendant been called Edna Oswaldtwhistle ..

Woodsy42 said...

And they wonder why we the public have no trust in authority!

Gallovidian said...

Rotten beyond redemption.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps if Waddingtons bring out a Lancashire Multi-Culti edition of Monopoly there'll be a special ethnic chance card :
"Do not go to jail, pass Go and collect £360,000"

Dr Cromarty said...

Eliot Morley went to jail (rightly) for a fraud worth £16800, I believe.

The only inference one can draw is that she got off because she's asian/Muslim and/or a woman.

Either way it stinks.

blueknight said...

The clues to this otherwise, inexplicable court decision, I believe, lie in the fact that its that particular part of Lancashire .. and in the name of the defendant .. That's what everyone will think. Another dagger in the heart of multiculturalism ...

JuliaM said...

"I think we might have seen an entirely different outcome, had the defendant been called Edna Oswaldtwhistle .."

I wouldn't be a bit surprised...

"And they wonder why we the public have no trust in authority!"

As Gallovidian & Dr Cromarty point out, this stinks to high heaven, and people are beginning to notice.

" Another dagger in the heart of multiculturalism ..."

If only! Frankly, it seems unkillable.