by Mother Jenny Beasley held her three-month-old daughter Scarlett’s hand when she died in hospital of pneumonia. At that moment, she knew her life had changed irrevocably.
Jenny went into unimaginable pain and despair, and in the weeks after Scarlett’s death she continued to care for her other young children, she had to cope with doctors and the coroner, and plan her daughter’s funeral.
In the midst of that grief, Jenny’s car insurance lapsed for a single day as the routine of life settled down.
She paid for a new policy as soon as she realized it, but Jenny found herself being taken to court by the DVLA over that one day when she was uninsured. Then she was one of the victims of the controversial Individual Justice Procedure.
She trusted the justice system to be fair, but prosecutors from the DVLA did not read her heartbreaking letter – which set out how she accidentally let her insurance lapse after her daughter died.
In the fast-track courts, the opportunity to withdraw the case against Jenny was lost and she ended up with a criminal conviction.
“I’m upset and angry because I’m now convicted of something that I think was really out of my control”, she said.
“What I was doing when Scarlett died was being a convicted felon. That’s not anything I want attached to that time of my life.
“I want to be able to look back and process that on my own without thinking about ‘one day’ being prosecuted.
“There are a lot of things about losing my daughter that would make me angry and I don’t need to be angry about being convicted of something that I think is trivial.”
Jenny, 37, who lives with her husband and twin six-year-old daughters in Torquay, spoke to a joint Evening Standard/ITV News investigation which is speaking out on what would have been her daughter’s first birthday, helping the an unseen story to be revealed. the impact of the defective Individual Justice Procedure.
Scarlett was taken to hospital last December when she had difficulty feeding, and Jenny found a moment to start the process of renewing insurance on her Peugeot.
She had weeks left before the current policy expired, and was unable to complete the process as she focused on her daughter’s care.
On December 21, Scarlett’s condition took a sudden and unexpected turn for the worse.
Jenny and her husband ran to their daughter’s bedside and held her hand as she died in the early hours of the morning.
“Nothing is the same again”, she said. “You lose a part of yourself and you never get over it, you just learn to live with it.”
Jenny says she deals with “unbearable pain” every day, and in the weeks after her daughter’s death – dealing with phone calls from the coroner, meetings with doctors, and returning to hospital to collect Scarlett’s pram – she sometimes “ he was unable to perform”.
“My mind was gone at that point”, she says, honestly.
Jenny was informed by post that she would face criminal prosecution for not having any insurance on her car that day in January, and she ticked the ‘guilty’ box on the form, believing that was the option right
“I felt like I was fully instructed to plead guilty”, she said, looking back at how the Individual Justice Procedure paperwork is presented. Jenny says she was hoping for an understanding when she sent in her mitigation letter.
In the fast-track courts, a magistrate sits in private and deals with cases on paper evidence only, and prosecuting bodies – such as the DVLA – are not involved in the process.
Jenny was convicted and the magistrate gave her a full discharge – the lowest possible penalty. But a panel of lawyers gathered at the Evening Standard/ITV News investigation were unanimous that the case against Jenny should be dropped when her tragic circumstances were known.
It was not in the public interest, they concluded, and decided that she would also get a different result if the case were heard in open court with legal representation.
Meanwhile, Jenny was left with a sense of injustice about the way she was treated.
“The system is clearly not working”, she said.
“I feel insulted – Scarlett’s death was not acknowledged in my eyes, because if it had been I don’t think a judge would have said I should have been convicted of that.”
Jenny is not alone in her treatment in the fast-track courts.
Our investigation revealed the case of a widow from Northampton who was found guilty of over £3.34 in unpaid car tax after her husband – who used to deal with financial matters – died of a brain tumour.
Another woman was also prosecuted for unpaid car insurance at a time when her father was dying, her husband was taken to hospital, and her daughter needed treatment for mental health difficulties.
And a Cornwall woman who suffered a miscarriage and needed treatment for severe depression pleaded for “some understanding”, but was convicted anyway.
Former Chief Justice Lord Thomas and the Association of Magistrates agree that the SJP system needs change, and the time for reform is now.
It will come too late for those like Jenny who have already gone through the fast track courts, but action would help prevent future rights.
