You may wish to discontinue a prosecution before trial, or at or during the trial. This might arise where, for example, it is clear that there is no longer a realistic prospect of obtaining a conviction.
An Information should not be withdrawn because the defendant claims that by the time of the hearing any necessary work to comply with legal requirements will have been completed.
You have a right to discontinue the prosecution at any time before trial or up to close of the prosecution case. After that time, the prosecution can only be discontinued with the consent of the court.1
How a prosecution may be discontinued
You may discontinue a prosecution by:
withdrawing the charge; or
offering no evidence.
Withdrawing the charge
Where several Informations are laid, the defendant may indicate a willingness to plead guilty to one or more charges if others are withdrawn. This is one form of plea bargaining. If, on the facts of the case, you consider that such a course may be appropriate, you must get the agreement of the Approval Officer before you indicate to the defence that you accept what they propose or you withdraw any charge.
Withdrawal of charges may be appropriate where you have laid alternative Informations and wish to proceed on only one of them. You should refer to `Preparing the Case'.
The Attorney General has issued guidelines on the acceptance of pleas2. The guidelines are primarily concerned with acceptance of a plea by the prosecution advocate at court. However the principles that are outlined apply to situations where, before trial, a plea is offered by the defence to a charge/s on the condition that other charges are dropped.
In such a situation you must consider whether what is suggested by the defence is in line with the circumstances in which a plea to a reduced charge or a less serious charge, can be accepted, as set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors.
You should bear in mind that in such circumstances the basis on which the decision was taken should be transparent. Therefore you should be prepared to explain the reasons behind the decision that was taken. Such an explanation may be required, via prosecution advocate, in open court. It is therefore important that you record your reasoning when recommending to the Approval Officer that a plea to a reduced charge should be accepted.
Magistrates may suggest at trial that an Information is withdrawn, for example, where they propose to convict on a number of other charges. You may do so provided there is no good reason to proceed on the Information, for example, where it was laid to provide a test case.
If you simply fail to prove an offence at court, you should not seek to withdraw the charge, but should leave it for the magistrates to dismiss.
If you intend to withdraw a charge at court, you should inform the clerk to the court that this is what you intend to do, before the court convenes. At the hearing you should simply inform the court that you wish to withdraw the charge in question.
Offering no evidence
You may offer no evidence to prove an offence before a trial begins. In exceptional cases it may be appropriate to offer no more evidence after a trial has commenced (but before the prosecution case has closed). An example of such a situation might be where your case has collapsed at trial because the main prosecution witness gave hostile evidence, and you have no other supporting evidence on which a court could convict.
You should simply inform the court that you do not wish to offer any (or any further) evidence. Magistrates will then dismiss the charge.
took effect immediately following publication on 7 December 2000.