THE stream of offenders at Thames Magistrates’ Court at Bow in East London were the usual mix — cannabis possession, drink-driving and driving without insurance, burglary and shoplifting. All pleaded guilty and the district judge efficiently dispensed justice — a succession of tough but fair penalties — with the occasional wry comment.
The day’s list was standard fare for Deven Vyas, the Hackney and Tower Hamlets borough prosecutor. Typically there were inconsistencies over dates and missing files because cases had been added by the court at the last minute. “It’s something I am trying to sort out,” he says.
At least he avoided multiple adjournments and most cases went ahead.
Vyas, 34, is one of a new breed of prosecutor in the front line of the push by the Crown Prosecution Service for pre-eminence in the criminal justice system. He enthuses about the work and the challenge to tackle what was held to be one of the worst CPS areas in England and Wales.
“When I was promoted (in January) I was conscious that it was really quite a challenging task because of the ineffective trial rates.”
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That rate stood at 36 per cent — meaning more than one in three trials failed to go ahead because of problems such as witnesses not turning up. Mike O’Brien, the Solicitor-General, even paid a special visit to ask what was being done about it.
What Vyas is doing is to ensure tighter case management. Working closely with the police and courts, cases are authorised for charging (now the CPS’s responsibility) only once “trial ready” and outstanding issues are sorted out. Communication is now by e-mail, not memo. Already the ineffective trial rate has fallen below 25 per cent; his target is 20 per cent — the national average is 21 per cent. “I’m very pleased — it means it’s working,” he says. At the same time, his area is one of those piloting speedy summary justice, aiming to deal with all guilty pleas by the next hearing and not guiltys within six weeks.
Vyas is not a career prosecutor. He started as a solicitor with the City firm Linklaters working on share schemes. “I absolutely loathed it; I hated being tied to the desk all day.” So he joined the CPS in February 2003 as a crown prosecutor, accepting a large salary dip. “But at least I was enjoying what I was doing.”
Within just over a year he became a senior crown prosecutor and was seconded for a year to the Treasury Solicitors department — “it was very useful seeing the other side”.
Then it was back to the CPS and swift promotion to his current job of borough prosecutor, with responsibility for 20 lawyers plus administrative staff, overseeing all the magistrates’ work in the two boroughs.
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“I try to go to court once a week to be aware of what’s happening. I don’t want to de-skill. If I’m telling lawyers what to do, I can only do it if I do the work myself.”
Likewise he does regular stints as the duty prosecutor at a police station where prosecutors now work closely with the police on charging. The area is high in ethnic minorities and Vyas, a Hindu, feels he is at an advantage in tackling some of the sensitive crimes such as domestic violence. “It can be very difficult for a family member to come forward in these cases and I can empathise.”
But he does not find any change in attitude towards prosecutors within the community since the terrorism attacks; nor higher levels of racial tension. “The kinds of crime are the same as anywhere else.”
For the future he wants to do more crown court advocacy — he has just qualified as a higher court advocate — and ultimately go on to the Bench. “There aren’t enough ethnic minority judges or from the CPS.”
But for now the task is ensuring only sound cases get to trial. “This is very much the new CPS — more robust, more proactive.”
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And, he says, the work “makes a difference” to the community. “When I go to court and succeed in getting a serious criminal locked up, I feel good about that.”