Barker Gotelee

You may not be familiar with the term “victim surcharge” unless you have been successfully prosecuted!  You will ordinarily see this in the Magistrates’ Court where, following a guilty plea or verdict, you will be fined, have to pay prosecution costs and then have to pay an additional £15.00 victim surcharge levy.  This is imposed in all cases faced by individual defendants.

The idea is that all victim surcharges are paid into a dedicated ring-fenced fund to support organisations involved in victim support and similar.  This has now been in force and has generated large revenues.

The Government now wishes to extend this to fixed penalty offers.  It would mean that any private or professional driver agreeing to pay a fixed penalty (e.g. £60 for speeding or £200 for no insurance or graduated fixed penalties between £60 and £200 for overloading, tachograph or construction and use offences) would also have to pay an additional £15 sum.

On the one hand the Government may say it is totally logical that the victim surcharge should be levied because, after all, a fixed penalty offer is an alternative to prosecution and any defendant pleading guilty or being found guilty in the Magistrates’ Court already has to pay this sum in all cases regardless of the type or nature of offences he or she faces.  Therefore, what is the rational objection?

Opponents of this plan regard it as what has become known as a ‘stealth tax’, designed to increase Government revenue.  Moreover, some say it cannot be right that victim surcharges can apply to victimless offending - after all, should a person issued with a penalty for a defective tyre be compelled to pay into a fund supporting the victims of “traditional” criminal behaviour i.e. that involving violence or dishonesty?  The Government’s riposte to this is that directly or indirectly there is no such thing as victimless crime and the commission of any offence, of whatever nature, affects society as a whole.

You will all have your views on this but it is around the corner.  We will see how this develops.

Tim Ridyard

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