Hundreds of alleged offences dropped by prosecutors because of police failures

Hundreds of alleged offences have been dropped by prosecutors because police failed to file their reports in time, The Herald reports.

More than 850 charges were reported late to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS), forcing fiscals to drop proceedings, figures obtained under a freedom of information request reveal.

The data indicates that the number of later reports has risen since the introduction of Police Scotland, increasing by 14 per cent in the single force’s first year of operation.

Lawyers expressed dismay at the numbers.

Thomas Ross QC said the figures were “extraordinary”.

He added: “You catch someone with a bag of heroin, you do a presumptive test and you report it. You don’t even need to wait for forensics to come back. You could write the report on a single sheet of A4 paper.

“I don’t understand it and I think people will be surprised that you could be caught with a drug like heroin and get away with it because the police take longer than a year to report it.”

Advocate Niall McCluskey said it was concerning that so many offences were “slipping through the net”.

He added: “You almost get a sense that some of these reports are being left on someone’s desk and, because of a lack of resources, being forgotten about and by the time they do get reported to the Crown it’s too late.

“This is something both Police Scotland and the Crown Office need to have a good look at.”