Phone call sentence for offender

A man was sentenced by a judge over the phone when he became stuck in a traffic jam, it has emerged.

Aftab Ahmed, 44, of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was due at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday to be sentenced for an offence relating to his bankruptcy.

But a crash on the A14 prevented him from getting to court on time.

When Judge Caroline Ludlow became aware of the reason for his delay she sentenced him to 140-hours community service over the phone.

Save public money

After consulting law books Judge Ludlow said she did not know of a reason why she should not pass sentence over the phone as she was not handing down a custodial sentence.

Court clerk Rachel Bonner said Mr Ahmed's lawyer phoned him to make sure he was happy with the unusual situation and to check he was not driving.

After hearing mitigation, Judge Ludlow phoned Mr Ahmed on his mobile phone from a telephone in court and sentenced him to the community punishment order and ordered him to pay £750 costs.

Ms Bonner said: "When she heard of the problem the judge said that to save wasting public money by adjourning the case she was considering passing sentence over the phone.

'First' for Ipswich

"She asked the prosecution counsel if he could think of any reason in law why she couldn't and when no reason was offered she went ahead."

Ms Bonner said she thought it was one of the first times anyone had been sentenced over the phone.

"It's very unusual. I've never heard of it before and it's never happened at Ipswich Crown Court," she said.

Mr Ahmed had earlier admitted failing to explain to the official receiver the loss of £22,500 between the presentation of his bankruptcy petition in November 2002 and the start of his bankruptcy in June 2003.

'Common sense' decisions

A spokesman for the department for constitutional affairs said: "It's a very unusual case and myself or any of my colleagues in the department have never heard of any similar case.

"Technically there would have been nothing wrong in the judge adjourning the case.

"But judges are independent, they follow guidelines, but they also use common sense to make decisions.

"In this case the judge decided not to waste court time or tax payers' money, they wanted a quick decision so justice could be seen to be done and all parties involved were in agreement," he added.