Shocking figures show 600 judges, magistrates and coroners have been disciplined for bad behaviour in just seven years
Judges, magistrates and coroners have been told off or ended up out of a job on an almost weekly basis according to a new report
MORE than 600 judges have been disciplined for bad behaviour – with some breaking the law they are meant to enforce.
They have been sacked, rebuked or forced to resign on an almost weekly basis, according to government report.
Judges and magistrates have been in the dock for everything from rudeness to committing criminal acts.
More than 14,000 complaints were made against members of the judiciary for misconduct over the past seven years, official figures show.
Charges include driving offences, assault, fraud inappropriate touching and bullying court staff.
One judge was carpeted after he fell asleep during a trial and a female judge was suspended after notching up four speeding offences.
Others were disciplined for continual failure to deliver judgements and not attending enough hearings.
Since 2008 a total of 617 judges, magistrates and coroners have been disciplined, according to figures released by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office.
In the last two years 118 were reprimanded, with several being suspended or removed from their posts.
Judge Robert Stephen Dodds, 64, was officially reprimanded last year following a series of rude comments made during sensitive family cases.
In one hearing, involving a 13-year-old girl’s bid to discover her real father, he said: “Can I tell you how bitterly resentful I am at how much of my Saturday I spent reading this codswallop?”
He also referred to the case being brought by “lunatics”.
Magistrate Susan Ware was found to have made “inappropriate and insensitive comments” while chairing a youth court in Leicestershire.
Mrs Ware, a JP since 19970, was given “formal advice” and has resigned from the youth panel.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said she had advised a defendant “to deal with his anger by ‘banging his head against a brick wall’.”
Lord Justice Thorpe was the most senior judge to be reprimanded after he was banned from driving who was reprimanded in January after he was banned from driving for accumulating 12 points on his licence in 2012. He had been caught speeding and going through red lights.
Beatrice Bolton became infamous when she stormed out of a court in Carlisle, as she was convicted of letting her German shepherd bite a neighbour. The judge retired on medical grounds in January before the disciplinary process against her had finished.
Shanaz Hussain, a JP in Pendle, was convicted of a £360,000 mortgage fraud by forging her estranged husband’s signature.
A magistrate in West Suffolk, Peter Hiett, was removed from his office after a panel found “his behaviour and appearance while shopping fell below the standards expected”.
Bernadette MacDonald-Raggett, who sat on the bench in Dorset, resigned after “behaving in an offensive manner towards another magistrate”.
Last year more than 2,000 complaints were made by members of the public, or court staff about the behaviour of judges, magistrates and coroners.
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The investigations are carried out by the Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor and only focus on the conduct of officials and not their judgements.
The Lord Chief Justice and the Lord Chancellor, the two most senior legal figures in Britain, can issue a wide range of punishments depending on the offence, from being removed from post to be officially warned.
A spokesman for the JCIO said: “Last year disciplinary sanctions were issued to less than 0.2 per cent of judicial office holders.”