Angela Leskaj in our Business Crime and Regulatory team secured another discharge at Westminster Magistrates Court. Angela Leskaj instructed Catherine Brown of 6KBW.

On 17 March 2023, District Judge Tempia discharged the extradition case of Poland v DW.

The requested person in this case was sought in relation to an offence of grievous bodily harm committed in 2005. The client was convicted of this offence and his surrender was sought in order to execute a custodial sentence of four years imprisonment, of which two years, nine months remained to be served.

JMW argued that requested persons extradition would disproportionately interfere with his and his family’s right to private and family life pursuant to Article 8 ECHR. It was conceded that although the offence was not trivial, this balanced against the delay since the commission of the offence, which was a considerable 17 years. Aside from this offence, the requested person has no previous convictions in the UK or Poland and the offence occurred as a result of him intervening in an altercation in order to assist his friend. It was highlighted that the client and his wife have a settled life in the UK for over 12 years, in which time they have both worked consistently and share a mortgage on their current property. Had the requested person been extradited, his wife would struggle financially and risked losing their home.

The Judge held that extradition would be disproportionate to our client’s convention rights and discharged the warrant against him. She commented that it was an “extremely difficult decision…(finding) the balancing exercise to be finely balanced.” She found that there had been a significant delay in issuing the warrant even though he had been working openly in the UK since September 2010. She emphasised that the offending was 17 and a half years ago when the requested person was a young man, and the authorities did not take any steps to locate him after the national police notice was issued after 14 July 2011. She stated the “delay since the crime was committed diminishes the weight to be attached to the public interest and increased the impact in the requested persons private and family life.”