The Court of Appeal has departed from its previous approach regarding the non-association conditions imposed as part of an anti-social behaviour order.
Stephen Knight represented four clients who appealed against anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) imposed following their guilty pleas to supplying Class A drugs. The appellants were arrested as a part of Operation Zeus, a large undercover police operation in the Hayes and Harlington area of London. All appellants had ASBOs imposed on them which included terms excluding them from the Hayes and Harlington area, and preventing their association with other people caught up in Operation Zeus. In respect of H and P, ASBOs were upheld on appeal after their conditions were greatly reduced in scope at first instance.
However, the non-association conditions imposed on two others, I and K, were successfully challenged on appeal. The challenge succeeded on the basis of there being no evidence presented at first instance that they knew the individuals they were prohibited from associating with. The result for I and K appears to represent a departure from the approach taken previously in the Court of Appeal in the cases of R v Barclay and others and R v Dyer wherein the same terms were upheld in almost identical circumstances.
Stephen Knight was instructed by Natasha Patel of Lloyds PR Solicitors.
Stephen is a third-six pupil at Garden Court Chambers.
