CPS decides not to prosecute Mates because of age

The CPS say there was a good chance of getting a conviction, but have decided not to drag Mates into court, partly because of his age.

This is a story I broke last year in this blog, when the former MP stood as Conservative candidate for PCC Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in November 2012.

The rules for PCC elections are stricter than for Westminster polls, and stipulate that candidates must be resident in the area where they are standing for election.

Critics say that to comply with this law, Mr Mates got himself and his wife added to the register at an address in Christchurch Road, Winchester, even though he never really lived there.

He continued to live at his long-standing home near Chichester in West Sussex, a few miles from the Hampshire border.

A CPS spokesperson said: “To stand as a candidate for the post of PCC, an individual must be resident in the area. Residence is decided by looking at not only the question of whether someone was at, or not at, a particular address on a particular date but also why that was so.

“Therefore, a person living at an address temporarily may be considered to be resident there if he has no home elsewhere, but not resident there if he does.”

However, the CPS has decided not to press charges against Mr Mates.

The spokesperson explained: “Having considered the reasons why Michael Mates was at the address provided, we have determined that there is sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction in this case.

“However, in view of the likely penalty that would be imposed, Michael Mates’ age, the fact that the election did not have to be re-run and that his culpability was relatively low, we do not consider that a prosecution would be in the public interest.”

What the CPS means when they say “his culpability was relatively low” is not clear.

Perhaps it was because Mr Mates’ real home isn’t very far from the Hampshire border.  I have asked the CPS to explain.

Mr Mates turned 79 in June, and indeed had he been elected as police commissioner last November, I reckon that at the age of 78 he would have been the oldest person in recent British history when first elected to a major political post.

In the event he was defeated by the Independent candidate Simon Hayes by a margin of almost 15,000 (just over 10 per cent of the vote).

A contributing factor may have been the fact that several senior Conservatives in Hampshire voiced their strong objections to Mr Mates being the party candidate (and some of those objections were broadcast on Channel 4 News).

But Mr Mates, who was a close ally of the former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine, and briefly served as a minister at the Northern Ireland Office, is very angry with the CPS decision.

He wants his day in court, and is very confident that he would have cleared his name had the prosecution gone ahead.

“This has left me between a rock and a hard place and I find it unacceptable,” Mr Mates told the Daily Echo in Southampton.

“I would have been perfectly happy to answer any charges in court because I know I have done nothing wrong.”

He added: “Having acted entirely on professional advice in the whole process I cannot understand what it is that has caused the CPS to arrive at their decision.”

The complaints about Mr Mates, which were first made during the election campaign, left Hampshire police in a difficult position, as the post of PCC involves oversight of that force.

So Hampshire Police passed the case to the neighbouring force in Thames Valley to investigate.

Mr Mates is now complaining to the Independent Police Complaints Commission about the way the case was handled by both police forces.

Earlier the CPS announced they would not be prosecuting the elected PCC for Hampshire, Simon Hayes, over a complaint Mr Mates made about claims he made about his home address.

The CPS decision not to prosecute Mr Mates has an interesting twist.

The rules for PCC elections also bar any candidate for the post of PCC if they have ever been convicted of any criminal offence (and several contenders last year were disqualified on these grounds).

So now, although the CPS have effectively said he did commit a criminal offence, Mr Mates is free to stand at the next PCC elections in May 2016, when he will be nearly 82.