JP is disciplined over rebuke to foreign defendant

The unnamed official's remark "fell short of the qualities of social awareness and sound judgment expected of the judiciary", the Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC) said.

But the magistrate was allowed to continue in his role after being reprimanded, completing further training and being removed from a mentoring list.

His long service, apology and contrition were taken into account.

In its annual report, the OJC said it investigated the complaint after the magistrate told a "non-British" defendant: "We take exception to people coming to our shores and abusing our hospitality."

The comment could have been construed as "displaying prejudice", the OJC found.

In a separate incident, another magistrate was reprimanded and told to take further training after failing to return to court to issue an adjudication following a "disagreement" with bench colleagues in the retiring room.

An OJC spokesman said it would not release the two magistrates' names or details of the courts involved.

The complaints were among more than 1,500 made against "judicial office holders" in 2009/10 – a rise of 18 per cent on the previous year, the OJC said.

More than half (59 per cent) related to judicial decisions and were unable to be considered under the regulations. A further 27 per cent related to alleged inappropriate behaviour or comments and five per cent to claims of discrimination.

The OJC said 25 magistrates, two judges and a tribunal member were removed from office in 2009/10 following investigations.

Reasons for the action included 12 failures to "fulfil judicial duties", five cases of civil proceedings or criminal convictions, six of inappropriate behaviour, three of professional misconduct, one each for a conflict of interest and motoring offences.