West Midlands CPS 2011/2012 Staff Awards

This year, West Midlands CPS launched its inaugural local staff awards which are designed to recognise the excellent and outstanding work that happens on a regular basis in the Area.

There were 10 categories which were broken down into People Awards, Quality Awards, Efficiency Awards and Technology Awards. Below are this year's winners who were presented their awards by the Chief Crown Prosecutor, Harry Ireland and the Area Business Manager, Laurence Sutton.

Outstanding Team Member - Robin Allen, Senior Crown Prosecutor 

Last August due to agreed annual leave and following the Voluntary Exit Scheme, the Trials Unit in North Staffordshire office was depleted from the usual four members of staff to just one for a period of over two weeks. The only remaining member of staff was Robin who had to deal with the usual number of committals and sent cases to be prepared. The cases were prioritised so that custody cases took priority followed by sent cases and then committals. Robin ensured all custody cases and sent cases were prepared and despatched on time. In appropriate cases adjournments were sought with the agreement of the defence and court. He worked tirelessly in the office as well as at home, clocking up in excess of 20 additional hours during that time. As a result all cases were successfully served and no cases dismissed.

Outstanding Team Work (Team Award) - Proceeds of Crime Unit

The Proceeds of Crime Unit (POCU) which consists of Adrian Phillips, Sarah Melo, Lynn Willis and Adele Ward, with Adrian being the Unit head, Sarah responsible for the main legal aspects of the Area's enforcement work, Lynn covering paralegal support work and Adele administrative support work. They were nominated for their outstanding achievement in the 2011/2012 financial year for the best ever performance in terms of money collected in the West Midlands area. Despite a background of economic decline, which affects in particular, the scope for recovery of money from the sale of real estate, and despite a reduction in police financial investigators, the team has secured an increase of over £800,000 on amounts previously collected and achieved 114percent of its target. This made the West Midlands the third best performing area in the country, with the remaining areas not meeting last year's collection figures. Notable successes have included the appointment of receivers to take possession of a former massage parlour which, along with other properties, is being marketed to go towards satisfaction of a £2million confiscation order made against a former people trafficker who funded his lavish lifestyle from exploiting women trafficked from 10 countries; action taken against a fraudster subject to a confiscation order of nearly £2.4 million to prosecute him for perverting the course of justice for continuing to deal with his assets from prison, whilst efforts continue to sell his Spanish villa; the payment of £750,000 compensation from the realisation of assets to victims of a campaign of arson, fraud and blackmail that involved terrorising the elderly residents of a mobile home site and torching their homes; and the first signing of a consent order by a convicted money launderer to allow the appointment of receivers to realise his assets.

All this has been achieved against a background of difficult circumstances - the team was without an enforcement lawyer for some months due to Voluntary Exit Scheme and then Sarah needed to bring herself up to speed with a new role; Adele joined the team half way through the year after a career break and again had to learn a new area of work; Adrian has carried a full Complex Casework Unit (CCU) caseload in conjunction with supervising the POCU, and for some months Lynn took on extra responsibilities for supervising and line managing the CCU support staff in the absence of a CCU business manager. In addition, the team have converted a previous manual system of logging casework into a digital one by registering all cases on the Case Management System. Furthermore, they have performed this function in respect of Regional Asset Recovery Team (RART) cases for the RART lawyer based in a neighbouring police station whose previous system was entirely paper based. The team continue to examine new ways of making enforcement more effective and are currently looking at ways to pursue assets previously considered out of reach. The Unit was recently profiled and their work championed in the local media.

Outstanding Leadership - James Jenkins, Sector Crown Prosecutor & Martin Lindop, Sector Crown Prosecutor

James Jenkins and Martin Lindop were appointed as the Sector Crown Prosecutors for Central & Western Crown Court Unit in August 2010. They oversaw the merger of the Wolverhampton and Birmingham Crown Court Units, which created the largest Crown Court Unit outside of London. The two Units worked with differing operating practices and there was a reluctance and disillusionment from some of the staff transferring from the Wolverhampton office into Birmingham.

James and Martin undertook a complete review of all processes and systems from both of the Units and produced a standard operation process for the new merged Unit. They have been instrumental in producing desk top instructions for all legal staff. They hold regular meetings with all grades of staff and are receptive to staff suggestions for improvements and accept criticism where justified. They have been instrumental in bringing the two teams together as a merged unit rather than one group feeling that it was an acquisition. Staff now identify with working for Central & Western Sector rather than their old units.

Several of the legal staff in the new Unit had limited or no Crown Court experience and both have encouraged their development and training and are totally committed to staff progression. They hold daily surgery appointments where staff can discuss case issues and this has been commended as part of the Unit's People Strategy. They both work tirelessly on behalf of their staff, the Unit, the Area and the CPS as a whole. Theyve inspired loyalty and respect from the Caseworkers, Paralegals and Prosecutors alike by showing them the same loyalty and respect. No matter how busy they are, their doors are always open to staff and its a tribute to their abilities as managers that they support their staff in this way whilst delivering a high level of business performance. They provide vital support to the Senior Sector Crown Prosecutor and staff and have implemented Optimum Business Model and the Early Guilty Plea scheme.

Both have exceptional legal knowledge and experience, which they are always willing to share with their colleagues. They are held in high regard by their criminal justice partners. They work hard to raise the profile of West Midlands CPS, often providing charging decisions out of hours and working with the media to explain the prosecution process. Every member of their teams feel valued as they check on them most days ensuring that any issues with casework or prosecution can be identified and resolved as quickly as possible. Their faith in their staff and their hard work and unwavering support have allowed their staff to develop and progress into highly respected prosecutors and caseworkers, and generates loyalty and commitment from their staff to work that little bit harder and to go the extra mile for the Unit and the CPS as a whole.

Outstanding Contribution to Promotion of Fairness and Equality - Parveen Hassan, Equality, Diversity and Community Engagement Manager

Parveen is a strong advocate and a leading champion on community engagement, securing public confidence by engaging with the most vulnerable in society. She is recognised in the community for her resounding success in supporting black and ethnic minority women who have encountered domestic violence. Her passion and tirelessly work during her spare evenings where she chairs the Women's Issues Group of new migrant communities, refugees and asylum seekers and the Asian Women DV forum with community partners. Passionately she raised the bar amongst colleagues by not only encouraging staff to support victims and vulnerable women from Somalian communities on Female Genital Mutilation and Honour Based Violence from South Asian communities, she selflessly, dedicated to volunteer in the community, capacity building with these women in understanding the CPS policies on Domestic Violence and Serious Sexual Offences. Beyond her call of duty, educating young BME women with cultural and language barriers on soft skills, crime prevention and safety through a series of CPS workshops, focus groups, tea and drop in surgeries, in the heart of the community.

Her success already acknowledged by specialists in the Violence Against Women sector, whilst maintaining strong relationships with ISVA's and IDVA's, Parveen further felt the need to address the service gap for victims and survivors from BME women and emerging communities, she maintained integrity and delivery securing support despite streamlined resources by volunteering out of CPS core time. As a result 300 Somalian women are benefiting from her engagement and support; at the Community Integration Partnership and Womens Equality Networks where she leads to spread the corporate message, heightening awareness of the need to review services to improve the lives of survivor's, victims and witnesses, our core quality standards; assessing the needs of victims and witnesses whilst supporting them to give best evidence.

She strongly led social media campaigns to address Violence Against Women, ensuring CPS is in the forefront of community engagements, building a positive reputation amongst these women who find it difficult to challenge and supported. It is to her credit the Area receives a constant green rating on community engagement performance, balancing staff and business needs as a beacon of excellence. What makes Parveen unique is her attributes and modesty as a public servant which remains with her constantly out of work.

Parveen dedicated time leading interagency protocols with specialists from the community and voluntary sector, gaining public confidence by her passionate mannerism and effectiveness to publicly engage with BME women with perseverance. Her community engagement leadership has been an asset for the West Midlands and the service demonstrating once again why Parveen's won several external Community Awards on outstanding public service for her skills, in community cohesion, and services to improving race relations for BME women.

Significant Work to Increase Public Confidence - Robert Price, Senior Crown Advocate

Robert came to the CPS as a Crown Advocate (CA) and was subsequently promoted to Senior Crown Advocate. This year he was lead prosecution counsel in a two handed murder against two top Queens' Counsels. He was offered the services of a leader but declined instead opting for a junior from within our CA ranks. The case was prosecuted to trial where both defendants were convicted of murder. The Judge called Robert into his chambers following the trial to commend him for the way he prosecuted the case. Similar praise was forthcoming from the senior officers from the police's Major Investigation Department.

 

Significant Contribution to the Principles of Casework Quality - Anamarie Coomansingh, Special Casework Lawyer

Anamarie has consistently delivered excellent results in some of the Area's most difficult, complex and long running cases. She has worked on the West Midlands CCU since its inception and prior to that on its predecessor, the Special Casework Unit. She has a wealth of expertise in organised crime and its international aspects, on which others frequently consult her, when she always gives freely of her time. This expertise was fully demonstrated by the successful conclusion of the latest phase of Operation Pragmatic when a number of organised criminals were convicted in March 2012 of various offences of blackmail, kidnapping and drug trafficking. The case has its origins in the conviction in 2002 of Raymond Woolley for VAT fraud when he was sentenced to nine years in prison and made the subject of a confiscation order in the sum of £9.6 million. The police became aware of further activity in 2005, by which time Woolley had escaped from prison and fled to Switzerland, when one of his associates was kidnapped and held until a substantial ransom was paid, but out of fear no complaint was made. The police turned to Anamarie for help in 2008 when the activities of an undercover officer started to reveal evidence of drug trafficking involving Woolley and his associates and a further kidnap plot against the same victim, the police this time fearing for the life of the victim. Anamarie organised a meeting in Switzerland with the Swiss authorities through Eurojust and persuaded the Swiss authorities to investigate.

This was the start of a long and hard battle to obtain evidence from the Swiss, to extradite Woolley and to identify the 2005 kidnappers. The process was delayed by the process of obtaining evidence from the Swiss and Woolley's appeals to the Swiss but he was finally extradited in 2009. Further delays followed due to the Swiss refusing permission to charge Woolley with the kidnap as evidence had been received after the extradition request. However, thanks to her tenacity. Finally after a series of trials, including one where the kidnap victim gave evidence, convictions against all were secured with substantial prison sentences. Although permission to prosecute Woolley for kidnap is still outstanding, he is now serving four years for blackmail. A measure of the quality of Anamarie's work is reflected in the remarks of the trial Judge who went out if his way to praise her remarking that the case had been "remarkably well prepared" and that she was "thoroughly to be commended."

Effective Working with Criminal Justice Service (CJS) Partners - West Midlands CPS 2011 Disorder Unit

During August last year parts of the West Midlands were subjected to outbursts of disorder which were unprecedented in recent times. As a result of these disturbances it was necessary for CPS staff to be available to deal with the extra work that resulted. Members of staff were needed to cover night courts and Sunday courts, and were asked to deal with charging decisions out of hours. Reacting to events very quickly, a team of lawyers was set up with some taking the lead for charging decisions and others dealing with cases in court. This obviously had the knock on effect of producing a significant bulge of work in the West Midlands CPS offices of both contested and non-contested matters in the youth, magistrates' and Crown Courts.
It was necessary for systems to be set up at short notice to collate information for area and national purposes, these disturbances became the subject of much media and political interest. The work done by this team was led by Martin Lindop, Sector Crown Prosecutor and supported by the legal and administrative staff in the West Midlands and were commended by the Solicitor General and the Director of Public Prosecutions during their visit to the Birmingham. The team set up continues to deal with live cases still in the system.

Working closely with the criminal justice agencies from the outset was essential to ensure that cases, ranging from theft from stores to a multi-handed murder, could be handled alongside the existing casework. Regular meetings were held by the Level D managers to plan and allocate the work and to notify the courts when multiple arrests were to be made so that extra courts could be created.

Probation, Youth Offending Teams and the Prison Service were included in the meetings as the aim was to ensure offenders were dealt with swiftly to help to reassure the public at a worrying time.

Charging lawyers met with the police to consider CCTV evidence in advance of arrests to ensure cases were likely to succeed and case preparation lawyers forged excellent relationships with the dedicated police teams, thus ensuring timely delivery of evidence to enable cases to be listed promptly. The majority of the work was carried out by this dedicated team. This could not have been achieved had not their colleagues of all grades redoubled their efforts to ensure that it was business as normal as far as other work was concerned.

At all courts the sentences that were passed reflected the seriousness of the events and certainly sent a message that behaviour of this type would not be tolerated.

A number of sentences were appealed at the Court Of Appeal but with the exception of one were unsuccessful.

After the arrests had all been made the parties continued to meet to discuss best practice and areas for improvement. A document has been created which sets this out and which will be used in the event of any similar situation.

This has been an excellent example of both working to increase public confidence and effective working within the criminal justice agencies.

To date, over 150 rioters have been sentenced to a total of over 120 years.

Innovator of the Year - West Midlands CPS Clerking and Fees Unit

The West Midlands Clerking and Fees Unit, led by Kash Kooner has, realised a number of benefits for the West Midlands Area. As an early pioneer for a centralised diary system for clerking Crown Advocates, Kash and his team have ensured that Crown Advocacy savings have increased year on year. This has been at a time of great transition for the Area and when the numbers of CA's has reduced for the Area. Almost 100percent of Plea and Case Management Hearing cases are dealt with by in-house Advocates and cases are allocated not only to realise savings but to develop the Advocates professionally, in conjunction with the Advocate Managers.

In 2010, the Area made £3,534,222 in total Crown Advocates savings, with a net saving of Full Costs of £744,354, this increased in 2011 to £4,521,903 with a net saving of Full Costs in the amount of £1,498,482. This has been as a result of a collaborative and corporate approach from Kash with the Sectors and the staff that have processed Graduated Fees Scheme (GFS) and clerked Crown Advocates historically. The centralised diary system has ensured transparency in the Area and enabled Advocates to experience a wider range of work and increased their reputation with many more members of the Judiciary and the Referral Bar.

In addition to the increased savings, Kash has implemented a centralised approach to the payment of GFS and associated prosecution costs, which preceded P2P and the new fees scheme. This will reduce the number of staff processing fees in the Area, returning surplus resource back to the Sectors when this is needed to redress some issues as a direct consequence of digital working, primarily NSPIS sites, where the full benefit of Two Way Interface is yet to be gained. This approach will enable a singular point of contact to manage and report on expenditure, whilst conducting quality audits on the consistency of fees negotiation and the application of GFS in the Area.

Significant Improvement on Efficiency - Hannah Sidaway, Senior Crown Prosecutor

Hannah Sidaway has set up and run the Crown Court Early Guilty Plea (EGP) team for Birmingham and Wolverhampton. She started with the review of all indictable only offences in Birmingham Crown Court. Due to the success that she achieved with these cases, the scope of the category of case being reviewed by the team was expanded to include all either way cases in Birmingham and then to include all work in Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Hannah has taken a leading role in engaging with other agencies about the operation of the scheme. She has represented the CPS at court user meetings at Birmingham and Wolverhampton Crown Courts. Her positive and sensible attitude to the scheme has gained the trust and respect of the Recorder of Birmingham, who has made positive comments about the way in which she is operating the scheme, both in writing to CPS managers, to the Senior Presiding Judge and in open forum meetings with defence solicitors and barristers.

Hannah has taken a pro-active approach to dealing with defence solicitors, which has been essential in making the scheme work. She has been realistic in the cases that she has selected as potential EGPs, but has then been robust with the defence in ensuring that these cases are not removed from the EGP list unnecessarily.

The great benefit to the department has been in the time saved for lawyers and paralegal officers by avoiding the unnecessary preparation of committal and section 51 cases to trial ready standard in cases that will plead guilty at their first Crown Court appearance. In times of diminishing resources, this is essential and provides a model for an efficient way of working that could have national implications for the CPS.

'Digital' Employee of the Year - Bindi Athwal, Senior Crown Prosecutor

Being computer literate, Bindi was immediately enthusiastic about the implications of digital working for CPS. She embraced the technology and started working in her own time to work out ways of introducing the changes necessary to our systems. She took upon herself the role of training her colleagues informally at first. She was so enthusiastic that this was quickly recognised and she was asked to be the Area trainer to assist her colleagues. In the past eight months Bindi has worked tirelessly at home producing manuals and desktop instructions. The project board have been so impressed with her work that some of these manuals have been adopted for national use. She has trained colleagues on a one-to-one basis at their desk and also in groups. She has taken each step forward on the team and has tried various processes first so that she can give feedback and make amendments where necessary. She has designed templates and has reproduced legal guidance such as Archbold in a format that all of the staff can readily access. She has been driven and pulls others along with her commitment and belief in the digital process. The Birmingham Magistrates' team has been at the forefront of the digital process and is implementing a digital pod. Bindi has been the lead member of the team for the project and has made the very most of the opportunities presented by digital working. Bindi works three days per week and has young children. She has however been working at home for many hours and often late hours such is her determination to make the project succeed. She has been as great asset to the team and CPS as whole.
 
Bindi has been the cornerstone of training lawyers, Associate Prosecutors and Admin staff in respect of digital presentation and digital OBM case preparation. This has included drawing up guidance, preparing desktop instructions and developing workarounds to IT issues. Whilst doing so her manner and enthusiasm has been such that she has motivated those members of staff who were apprehensive or reluctant to embrace new systems and processes.