The respondent, was accused by Birmingham of having repeatedly engaged in anti-social behaviour over a number of years by targeting elderly and vulnerable victims and charging them excessive sums for unnecessary or shoddy building works.
Birmingham City Council v Pardoe [2016] EWHC 3119 (QB), 5 December 2016
Part 1 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 came into force in 23 March 2015. It provides a statutory scheme by which various bodies may obtain injunctions to restrain ant-social behaviour, repealing and replacing a number of disparate statutory regimes relating to the same subject matter. By s21(7) Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, ‘[i]n deciding whether to grant an injunction under section 1 a court may take account of conduct occurring up to six months before the commencement day’.
Mr Pardoe, the Respondent, was accused by Birmingham of having repeatedly engaged in anti-social behaviour over a number of years by targeting elderly and vulnerable victims and charging them excessive sums for unnecessary or shoddy building works. Relying on these allegations Birmingham sought an injunction under s1, Part 1 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014.
Resisting the application in the county court, Mr Pardoe sought to argue that the court was not entitled to consider any conduct occurring prior to 23 September 2014, i.e. six months before the relevant provisions came into force. HHJ Worster, dealing with the matter as a preliminary issue, rejected this contention.
The Court of Appeal dismissed Mr Pardoe’s appeal. Section 1 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 involves a two-stage test. A court may grant an injunction where it is satisfied first, that the Respondent has engaged or threatens to engage in anti-social behaviour and second, that it is just and convenient for the purposes of preventing the Respondent from engaging in anti-social behaviour.
Evidence of conduct prior to 23 September 2014 cannot by itself satisfy the first stage of the test. But the court may take it into account in determining the truth or accuracy of allegations of anti-social conduct occurring after that date. Evidence of conduct prior to 23 September 2014 may also be taken into account at the second-stage in deciding whether it is just and convenient to grant an injunction.
