New magistrate court fines should cause concern for businesses

New proposals on the maximum fines imposed by magistrates in England and Wales will have significant implications for businesses, not just individuals.

The justice minister Jeremy Wright announced this week that the highest maximum limits, for offences including motorway speeding, could increase from £2,500 to £10,000. Other speeding, driving without insurance and selling alcohol to a child could also see increases under the proposals.

Currently, most offences that could involve magistrate court fines are subject to specific maximums, known as levels, which currently range from £200 to £5,000. The proposals could also see magistrates having unlimited fining powers for offences where there is currently a maximum of £5,000 or more.

If these proposals are enacted, this clearly has significant implications for businesses which face exposure to significantly higher financial penalties. Some cases, such as environmental offences, can involve even higher fines.

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 has already paved the way for magistrates to impose unlimited fines for certain offences. However, the government is only now tabling the appropriate legislation to put that ruling into effect.

As I have touched on previous blogs, this makes it more important than ever for businesses to address regulatory risk at the earliest possible stage, to mitigate against the risk of prosecution, and, therefore, the risk of being so exposed to potentially higher financial penalties imposed by the courts.

For more information on this, or any other regulatory and compliance matter, please contact David Edwards on 01772 258321