Criminal Damage and Cannabis Possession – Case Dropped

Case study summary

Our client was wrongly accused of damaging his neighbour’s television aerial. Whilst being arrested, the police also found cannabis in his flat. Our lawyer’s made the correct decisions during the interview to ensure that both allegations were dropped.

Case study

Our client was a man with no previous convictions who had recently moved into new council accommodation. After he got into a dispute with his neighbours, they made a malicious allegation that he had snapped their TV aerial. When police arrested him for this offence, they also found a small amount of cannabis in his flat.

Our client was very concerned being charged for this offence could affect his ability to stay in his new flat, which he has waited a long time to be given. Therefore, he instructed our specialist criminal lawyers to represent him.

During the interview, in relation to the criminal damage allegation, our lawyers put forward a carefully written prepared statement. This made it clear that this was a false allegation made because of the neighbour’s ulterior motives and left the police with no choice but to drop this element of the case.

The more difficult part of the case was the very small amount of cannabis found. It is often possible to negotiate for a caution in response to small amounts of cannabis being found, however, this is still a formal warning which can stay on someone’s record. As the amount found was so small, our lawyers explored whether the police would really have the appetite to take this forward and determined that, in this specific case with this officer, the cannabis allegation was likely to go no further if the client remained silent.

The police dropped the investigation into both charges, and the client has retained his clear criminal record and his flat.