Judges throw out bid to prosecute pub couple over TV football match

Media Protection Services Ltd (MPS) – which investigates copyright breaches for the Premier League – acted illegally because its “prosecutions director”, Raymond Hoskin performed the role of a solicitor to issue a summons when he had no legal right to do so, the Divisional Court said.

A District Judge was therefore correct to consider the proceedings void and dismiss the case, said Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, sitting with Mr Justice Kenneth Parker.

Two other judges – sitting at Wolverhampton Crown Court and Canterbury Crown Court – were also wrong to have allowed prosecutions, one launched in May and another, in June last year to go ahead, he said in a judgment handed down yesterday.

MPS had appealed against the decision of District Judge Nicholas Sanders at Chester Magistrates’ Court in October last year to dismiss its attempt to prosecute Andrew and Christine Crawford, who run the Railway Inn in Helsby, Frodsham, Cheshire, for broadcasting a Liverpool and Chelsea match from an Albanian satellite broadcaster.

It was clear, said Lord Stanley Burnton, that laying the information – the step which leads to magistrates issuing a summons – was a reserved legal activity”.

Mr Hoskin had “acted as a solicitor within the meaning and in breach of” section 20 of the Solicitors Act 1974 because he was not an authorised litigator”.

Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, agreed with the decision, which also partly hinged on the way in which MPS was carrying out its own independent commercial activities on behalf of the League.