The Court of Appeal Criminal Division did not have jurisdiction to hear an appeal against conviction for a summary offence which had been committed to the Crown Court under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 s.51 when a guilty plea had been entered following an applicant’s conviction for offences on indictment. The court had to reconvene as a Divisional Court to hear the cases which were allowed on the basis of fresh evidence of a police error .
The Route to an appeal, was not straight forward however because an appeal by way of case stated was not the appropriate route to challenge a conviction on the ground of fresh evidence because it could not be said that the conviction was wrong in law or in excess of jurisdiction: s.28(1). The Divisional Court could hear a challenge based on fresh evidence where: there was no dispute on the facts; a certainty of acquittal; the ascertainment of the material facts had been entirely dependent on police procedures and the results of the analysis had been accepted as conclusive; the Crown accepted that it would not have sought a conviction if the true situation had been known; and blame was attached to the police error, R. v Bolton Magistrates Court Ex p. Scally [1991] 1 Q.B. 537, [1990] 10 WLUK 2 applied (see paras 18-31 of judgment).