Mother Jenny Beasley held the hand of her three-month-old daughter Scarlett as she died in hospital from pneumonia. At that moment, she knew her life had been irrevocably changed.
Jenny was plunged into unimaginable pain and despair, and in the weeks after Scarlett’s death she continued to look after her other young children, had to cope with doctors and the coroner, and plan for her baby daughter’s funeral.
In that maelstrom of grief, Jenny’s car insurance lapsed for a single day as the normalday-to-day administration of life was waylaid.
She paid for a new policy as soon as she realised, but Jenny found herself being taken to court by the DVLA over that single day when she was uninsured. She then became one of the victims of the controversial Single Justice Procedure.
She trusted the justice system to be fair, but her heartbreaking letter – setting out how she had accidentally let her insurance lapse after her daughter died – was noteven read by prosecutors from the DVLA.
In the fast-track courts, the chance to withdraw the case against Jenny was lost andshe ended up with a criminal conviction against her name.
“I am upset and angry because I've now got a conviction for something that, to me, was really out of my control”, she said.
“What I was doing when Scarlett died was being a convicted criminal. That’s not anything that I want attached to that time of my life.
“I want to be able to look back and process that on my own without having to think about being prosecuted for ‘one day’.
“There's enough things about losing my daughter that can make me feel angry and I don't need to feel angry about being convicted for 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 is speaking out on the day that would have been her daughter’s first birthday, helping to reveal the unseen impact of the flawed Single Justice Procedure.
Scarlett was taken to hospital last December when she was having trouble with feeding, and Jenny found a moment to start the process of renewing the insurance on her Peugeot.
She had weeks to spare before the existing policy ran out, and was unable to complete the process as she concentrated on her daughter’s care.
On December 21, Scarlett’s condition suddenly and unexpectedly deteriorated.
Jenny and her husband rushed 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 don't ever get over it, you just learn to live with it.”
Jenny says she copes with “unbearable pain” each day, and in the weeks after her daughter death – as she dealt with phone calls from the coroner, meetings with doctors, and a return to the hospital to collect Scarlett’s pram - at times she “couldn't function”.
“My mind was gone at that point”, she says, candidly.
Jenny was notified by post that she would face a criminal prosecution for having no insurance on her car on that day in January, and she ticked the ‘guilty’ box on the form, believing that was the right option.
“I felt completely signposted to plead guilty”, she said, looking back at the way Single Justice Procedure paperwork is presented. Jenny says she expected understanding when she sent in her letter of mitigation.
Jenny was convicted and given an absolute discharge – the lowest possible penalty - by the magistrate. But a panel of lawyers assembled by the Evening Standard/ITV News investigation were unanimous that the case against Jenny should have been dropped when her tragic circumstances were known.
It was not in the public interest, they concluded, and they found she would also have received a different outcome if the case was heard in open court with legal representation.
Jenny, meanwhile, has been left with a sense of injustice at the way she was treated.
“The system is clearly not working”, she said.
“I feel insulted – Scarlett’s death wasn't acknowledged inmy eyes, because if it was I don't think there's any way that a judge wouldhave said that I should have been convicted for that.”
Jenny is not alone in her treatment in the fast-trackcourts.
Our investigation has uncovered the case of a widow fromNorthampton who was convicted over £3.34 in unpaid car tax after her husband –who used to deal with financial matters – died from a brain tumour.
Another woman was also prosecuted over unpaid car insuranceat a time when her father was dying, her husband was taken to hospital, and herdaughter needed treatment for mental health difficulties.
And a woman from Cornwall who suffered a miscarriage andneeded treatment for severe depression pleaded for “some understanding”, butwas convicted nonetheless.
Former Lord Chief Justice Lord Thomas and the MagistratesAssociation agree that change is needed in the SJP system, and the time forreform is now.
It will come too late for those like Jenny who have alreadybeen through the fast-track courts, but action would help to prevent futureinjustices.
