If the police have taken your phone, your car, your cash or your records, two questions matter immediately: were they entitled to take it, and how do you get it back? This guide sets out the powers they rely on, the limits on those powers, how long they can...
False imprisonment is a common law offence in England and Wales, tried only in the Crown Court, and it carries a maximum of life imprisonment. It can be charged alongside other offences and often in a domestic context. This guide explains what the...
Most HMRC fraud investigations are civil. However, a small number are criminal, and those are the ones that end in arrest, search warrants and the Crown Court. The first thing to establish, before anything else, is which of the two you are actually in,...
There is no separate sentencing guideline for conspiracy, and no single "conspiracy” sentence. The rule is simpler than most people expect: a statutory conspiracy carries the same maximum sentence as the offence you are alleged to have conspired...
If you have been accused of a sexual assault or rape which allegedly happened years, or even decades, ago, one of the first questions you will have is usually whether the case can still be brought at all. In England and Wales, the answer is yes . There is...
Digital penetration is the legal term for penetrating another person's vagina or anus with a finger. In England and Wales, it is not a standalone offence with its own name: it is prosecuted as assault by penetration under Section 2 of the Sexual Offences...
If you have accumulated 12 penalty points within three years, a driving ban is the default outcome, not a possibility. The court must disqualify you unless you persuade it that disqualification would cause exceptional hardship . This guide sets out what...
The Computer Misuse Act 1990 is the main statute used to prosecute hacking and unauthorised computer access in England and Wales. It creates five offences, from unauthorised access at the lower end up to acts causing serious damage, which carries a maximum...
If the police have released you without charging you, you have been put in one of two positions: released on pre-charge bail, which carries conditions and a time limit, or released under investigation, which carries neither. Both mean the investigation is...
If you have been charged with perverting the course of justice, one of the most important questions you’re likely to have is what sentence it carries. The perverting the course of justice sentencing guidelines have applied since 1 October 2023, and...
