The defendant

Atul Nandha, 36, an engineer for Virgin Media, was waiting at Highbury Magistrates’ Court one Friday evening. He was frustrated at delays and inefficiencies. It was his third visit — this time to correct an error. By 5pm he had still not been seen and was told to come back the following Tuesday.

“About three years ago I was driving a vehicle and got hit when I was pulling out of the car park,” he said. “The police came and wanted to see my insurance, which I had, but not with me. I produced my papers at Wembley police station a few days later and they said, ‘That’s fine’. As far as I was concerned, that was it.

“Three months later I got a summons from Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court saying I’ve got to come into court and prove that I had insurance, otherwise I’d be looking at jail. I came in, gave my documents to the court usher and she said everything was fine.

“Then three months after that I got another summons. I couldn’t believe it. I came back and gave my documents again. This time I insisted on going into court and getting a receipt.

“A month later I got done for drink-driving, in November 2006, and they banned me for 27 months. Fair enough. But when I got my licence back, it had eight extra points on it, for driving without insurance.

“I’m an engineer on contract. Every time I have to take a day off I lose work. My company won’t have me insured until I get rid of this eight points so I can’t work and I can’t afford the extra insurance premiums.

“I’ve been waiting all day and they haven’t said nothing. People are just fobbed off.”

The solicitor

Greg Foxsmith, criminal defence lawyer with Shearman Bowen & Co, said: “There’s been a deterioration over ten years, but there’s no tipping point, it’s more death by a thousand cuts. We’re at the lowest point but haven’t reached the bottom of the curve.

“I typically face a series of delays. If asked to represent someone, I often find the defendant hasn’t arrived because the police or privatised security force haven’t managed it. So I can’t take instructions. I go to the prosecutors’ office to try to obtain evidence but it hasn’t been faxed through from the police station.

“Then I go upstairs to find which court my case is listed in, but the staff won’t have listed it. So in the first hour I don’t have any defendant, any papers or any courtroom.

“It’s not a good experience. You feel sorry for the agencies involved, the court staff are underpaid and harassed, it’s nobody’s fault at the coalface. These cuts leave everybody feeling wretched.”

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