Bail Affirmations – A Case Study

‘Bail Affirmations’ are a service we provide to solicitors and law firms frequently. We have assisted the CPS, the police and private clients with gathering evidence to confirm whether those awaiting trial pertaining to criminal matters are breaching the bail restrictions conditional to their release.

A solicitor client of ours who uses us regularly for process serving got in touch and explained that she was representing a father, ‘Darren’, in a rather acrimonious custody dispute matter. She said that the father’s ex-wife, ‘Leanne’, had been in a relationship with a violent drug user, ‘Brian’, who was recently released from police custody for an arrest involving taking/supplying drugs in front of the children of ‘Darren’ and ‘Leanne’ and beating them on two separate occasions.

Our solicitor client stated that part of ‘Brian’s’ bail conditions whilst awaiting trial was that he was not to have any contact with ‘Leanne’ or her children or go within so many hundred metres of their home address. The solicitor said that ‘Darren’ was now hearing from the children that ‘Leanne’ was sneaking ‘Brian’ back into the home of a night time and that sometimes he was coming round of a weekend with sweets and toys but that they were scared of him.

‘Darren’ wanted documented proof that ‘Brian’ was still going round to the address where his children were when they were in the custody of ‘Leanne’ and that he was interacting with them in contravention of his bail conditions.

We stationed a surveillance vehicle outside of ‘Leanne’s’ address and monitored the comings and goings from there. It was not long at all until ‘Brian’ pulled up in a vehicle, got out and walked into the house – which we captured on time and date stamped photos.

We monitored the address right the way through the evening whereby other people started turning up as the night drew on, capturing footage of ‘Brian’ and male friends hanging out in the front garden smoking intermittently.

We even captured ‘Brian’ and ‘Leanne’ leaving the next morning together with the children and putting them in the back of his car where they were seat-belted in without being in child seats / harnesses as recommended. We followed the four of them to a local KFC and recorded them eating together as well.

We took all of the time and date stamped covert photography and put it in a comprehensive surveillance report with copies of the original logs and submitted it to our solicitor who, in turn, was happy with the evidence acquired and the identified individual found his bail conditions were swiftly revoked and he was taken into custody within 48 hours.

‘Bail Affirmations’ are just one small part of the overall support services we provide to all solicitors and law firms throughout Newcastle and the whole of the North East. To learn more about these services, click here.