News Flash- Manchester Appeal – 19 June 2017

NEWS FLASH – 26th May 2017 (publication date) 

Support a pedlar to fight for all pedlars

John is a pedlar and is about to appear in Court to Appeal against a Local Authority.

The Local Authority has found the pedlar’s activity of trading in a prohibited street to be against the Authorities’s interpretation about how a pedlar can lawfully trade.

With this Appeal succeeding for the pedlar there is the possibility of local legislation being better understood and applied.

Ignorance is no defence in law but law has to be properly applied and pedlars.info is pleased to assist John’s barrister.

Pedlars volunteer time and effort to assist pedlars in legal difficulty.

In this case there is now an opportunity for you to help fund John’s Appeal by donating what you can afford.

Crowd Funding John’s Appeal through pedlars.info may achieve a breakthrough about how pedlars are treated.

All contributions sent to pedlars.info will be used to achievethat result.

Click the donate button in the left margin of this page.

If you want more information about this Appeal case please email us.

Appeal Hearing date 15 & 16 June 2017

update 19 June 2017:

The Case in brief:

The pedlar was in Manchester Crown Court to Appeal against Manchester Magistrates finding that he committed an Offence.

The pedlar continues to maintain his innocence.

The law brought against him is the Manchester City Council Act 2010 (MCCA) ‘Section 5 Pedlars’ that amends provisions of Schedule 4 of the1982 Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act – the (LGMPA). 

To see all the relevant terms within the MCCA that amended the LGMPA click this link.

The “essential requirements” (2A) include those listed in (2C) ‘trade’, ‘commences’, ‘transaction’, ‘selling’, ‘bona fide’, ‘service’, ‘moment’, ‘completed’, ‘aborted’, ‘elapsed’.

The pedlar’s contention was that any of these terms taken in isolation are meaningless until they are linked together and understood in the full context of the MCCA, the LGMPA and the Pedlars Act.

The pedlar understood that as long as he correctly obeyed the 5 minute rule at (2C)(a) a ‘sale’ could be concluded or ‘aborted’ allowing him a further 5 minutes of trading. 

The judge admitted at the start of proceedings that he knew little about the law of Street Trading and pedlary and asked for assistance from Counsel.

Manchester’s Counsel set out to convince the Judge that the 5 minute rule applies absolutely to the second and so a pedlar was lawfully obliged to exchange money for goods all within 5 minutes and then had to leave that location without any consideration that other customers were approaching.

The judge ruled that “5 minutes had expired” and dismissed the Appeal but… ignorance is no defence in law.

Pedlars at pedlars.info contend that there has been error throughout judgment.

The case deserves financially burdensome Judicial Review but, for the moment, pedlars trading in Manchester should use a smartphone to record their trading activity by making a verbal & video record whenever interrupted by Compliance Officers.

Pedlars are advised to set an alarm for 4 minutes and 59 seconds to remind them to move on and so not to be caught by the 5 minute rule or any other conditions.

Fair and just ‘interpretation’ of law affects how pedlars can provide goods and services in Manchester.

pedlars.info attended the full Hearing and can comment on the Law in this case.